Steve

The gas market this year is shaping up to be a lot like the market last year and observers should expect a pretty big dip in prices this summer, according to Steve Thumb of consulting firm Energy Ventures Analysis Inc. (EVA) in Arlington, VA. Thumb said rising domestic supply will be the biggest difference in the market this year.

The gas market this year is shaping up to be a lot like the market last year and observers should expect a pretty big dip in prices this summer, according to Steve Thumb of consulting firm Energy Ventures Analysis Inc. (EVA) in Arlington, VA. Thumb said rising domestic supply will be the biggest difference in the market this year.

As one of five performance goals for his last year as CEO of Sempra Energy, Steve Baum told a Wall Street analysts meeting Tuesday that the company is aggressively involved in settlement negotiations for all of the major litigation hanging over from the 2000-2001 western energy crisis. Resolving this potentially multi-billion-dollar risk is one of the key goals for which Baum has taken responsibility before he retires at the end of January next year.

An arbitration panel has ruled that Dynegy Inc. must pay $10.4 million in severance pay to former president and COO Steve Bergstrom, who resigned in October 2002. Bergstrom, at one time considered a top candidate to assume the role of CEO, resigned in October 2002 after the company restructured and closed its energy marketing and trading unit (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2002).

Williams CEO Steve Malcolm remains concerned about the “noise” from the ongoing energy merchant industry investigations by FERC, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the “uncertainty as to where those might lead.” Malcolm made the comments during a conference call last week to discuss the company’s third quarter earnings.

Williams CEO Steve Malcolm said Thursday he remains concerned about the “noise” from the ongoing energy merchant industry investigations by FERC, the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the “uncertainty as to where those might lead.” Malcolm made the comments during a conference call to discuss the company’s third quarter earnings.

Williams Companies shares jumped 5% to $9.42/share Tuesday after Merrill Lynch analysts Steve Fleischman and Sam Brothwell resumed coverage of the company with a “Buy” rating and a $12/share 12-month price target.

ChevronTexaco Corp. made three appointments to its new wholesale gas trading division, ChevronTexaco Natural Gas. Don Haley was appointed vice president of trading. Steve Wilson was named vice president of marketing, and Charlie Mertz was appointed director of supply and fuels management. They will report to Randy Curry, president of CTNG. Haley will be responsible for the daily management of the overall sales and supply portfolio for CTNG. He joined Chevron in 1980 and has held a variety of engineering, finance and trading positions of increasing responsibility. Wilson will be responsible for developing long-term natural gas sales agreements, primarily with utility and industrial customers across the United States. He joined Tenneco Oil in 1980 and worked in a variety of upstream engineering and operations assignments at Tenneco and Chevron prior to joining Chevron’s natural gas business unit in 1989. Mertz will direct the supply management activities for the company refineries, cogeneration partnerships and chemical plant facilities. He also will be responsible for procuring long-term supply from third party producers. Mertz held a variety of land and natural gas marketing roles at Apache, MidCon and Conoco Inc. in Denver before joining NGC/Dynegy in 1990.

Williams CEO Steve Malcolm said during a conference call with analysts Wednesday that despite the potential for $5 billion in asset sales this year, including the eight large assets still on the auction block, the company still will retain a major presence in the energy business, including a premier exploration and production operation in the Rocky Mountain region, a large midstream presence in the Rockies and Gulf Coast regions, 20,000 miles of interstate pipelines, a 54% stake in a profitable master limited energy partnership, and 60% of its former energy marketing and trading portfolio.