Staggering

Shortly after the company unveiled its staggering quarterly earnings report on Thursday, ExxonMobil Corp. launched a media blitz, accusing the White House and members of Congress of playing politics in their zeal to repeal annual tax incentives for the oil and gas industry.

A major transportation constraint starting Thursday dealt a staggering blow to several Rockies points Wednesday, where some quotes dropped below $3 for the first time in more than three years. That was the weakest part of a down market in which prices fell across the board in deference to light weather-based demand, a prior-day screen drop of nearly a dime and highly bearish expectations of a big storage build last week, with some estimates approaching 100 Bcf.

As major oil and natural gas producers report staggering first-quarter profits, the Senate Finance Committee said it will undertake an investigation into the taxes paid by large energy companies and has asked the Internal Revenue Office (IRS) to provide corporate tax returns.

There have been a “staggering” 30 LNG terminals proposed over the past few years representing as much as 25 Bcf/d of additional LNG capacity but most of the projects have a slim chance of being built, according to Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins.

Large swaths of the U.S. and Canadian power grids were left staggering last week after a series of gargantuan and unprecedented power outages hammered the Northeast, the Great Lakes region and eastern Canada leaving millions of customers without power.

Kansas City, MO-based Aquila Inc. reported Wednesday that it posted a staggering second-quarter net income of $101.3 million ($1.05 per share), an increase of 367% over the prior year’s second-quarter net income of $21.7 million ($0.25 per share). The sizeable increase was led by the company’s wholesale services segment, which boasted an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $148.5 million, compared to the segment’s $25.3 million posted during the second quarter of 2000. Aquila said that first-half EPS and net income exceed full-year 2000 results.

As Californians continue to wrestle with their own staggering electricity and natural gas bills, they are probably unaware that they are also contributing millions of dollars to help people in other states pay their energy bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), according to analysts with Reston, VA-based Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc.(EMPA).

As Californians continue to wrestle with their own staggering electricity and natural gas bills, they are probably unaware that they are also contributing millions of dollars to help people in other states pay their energy bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), according to analysts with Reston, VA-based Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc.(EMPA).

Despite anxious moments, California’s staggering grid systemheld together Wednesday, avoiding the rolling blackouts somein-state market participants feared would happen in the wake of thefederal emergency order expiring.