Standard

If oil and gas prices remain strong, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) expects domestic producers’ capital budgets to “gently” rise this year, which will lead to modest increases in aggregate production. As the year progresses, S&P also expects merger and acquisition activity to increase, with companies able to use their strong cash flows and “largely undrawn bank facilities” to fund acquisitions.

If oil and gas prices remain strong, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) expects domestic producers’ capital budgets to “gently” rise this year, which will lead to modest increases in aggregate production. As the year progresses, S&P also expects merger and acquisition activity to increase, with companies able to use their strong cash flows and “largely undrawn bank facilities” to fund acquisitions.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said the ratings and outlook on Union Gas (BBB/Stable) remain unchanged despite the adverse affects of a 2004 rate cut Thursday by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).

Saying it boosts liquidity, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services gave a thumbs up to San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp.’s decision last Thursday to create another Canadian natural gas trust surrounding a chunk of its oil/natural gas holdings in Western Canada. S&P said that Calpine expected to receive about $125 million in net proceeds from selling units in the trust, for which it will retain 25% ownership and a right to buy all of the gas at market prices.

Although it acknowledged political and regulatory factors that continue to be uncertain, Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services reported last Thursday sighting “signs of life” in California’s private-sector utilities. The uncertainties that still cloud the state’s energy picture go well beyond the outcome of the proposed new settlement plan for bankruptcy-bound Pacific Gas and Electric Co., according to S&P brief analysis, “California’s Utilities: Another Step Forward?”

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said Friday that it has affirmed its ‘A’ corporate credit rating on AGL Resources Inc. and its subsidiaries based on the organization’s solid operating performance, continued conservative financial management and maintenance of its current level of business risk.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said Tuesday that it affirmed its ‘BBB’ corporate credit ratings on holding company NiSource Inc. and its subsidiaries and upgraded its outlook from ‘Negative’ to ‘Stable.’

If the United States wants to maintain its current standard of living, it is going to have to become a bigger player in the global gas market by importing more liquefied natural gas (LNG), Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a House panel last Tuesday.

Standard and Poor’s Rating Service (S&P) on Thursday warned in a report titled “Risky Business: Selling Retail Electricity in the U.S.” that many retail marketers are in the same boat as wholesalers with significant market risk because of volatile prices and switching customers, operational challenges such as mass billing and collections, and weak credit.