Strides

Eastern Canada is rolling out a welcome mat for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, with two projects taking strides toward construction on top of one being built in New Brunswick.

Eastern Canada is rolling out a welcome mat for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, with two projects taking strides towards construction on top of one being built in New Brunswick.

The trading week ended quietly Friday with Northeast citygates continuing to take long strides in retreat from the quadruple-digit heights they had seen early in the week and the rest of the cash market mixed but with bears firmly entrenched in the driver’s seat.

Making further strides away from last week’s gains, July natural gas futures on Tuesday worked lower for the second consecutive session as questions continued to arise regarding whether the summer would be as hot as once expected. After carving out a low of $6.470 on the day, prompt month natural gas ended up settling at $6.502, down 39.1 cents.

The United Kingdom’s National Grid will make major strides in its near-dominance of major utilities in the New York-New England section of the United States with its plan to acquire KeySpan Corp., rumored last week and announced early Monday. National Grid will pay $42 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $7.3 billion, with an enterprise value of $11.8 billion. The boards of both companies unanimously approved the acquisition.

Two announcements last week indicate that Gulf of Mexico (GOM) discoveries have not ended, nor have producers put their deepwater work on the back burner.

As LNG projects continue to be proposed, industry-watchers wait to see which projects will stick and which ones will fade away. As opposed to the civil unrest in Bolivia which has cut off an international consortium-planned LNG facility there, Hunt Oil Co.’s Peruvian project appears to be sailing smooth seas and could begin operation in late 2007, early 2008, building an export/import link between the west coasts of North and South America.

As LNG projects continue to be proposed, industry-watchers wait to see which projects will stick and which ones will fade away. As opposed to the civil unrest in Bolivia which has cut off an international consortium-planned LNG facility there, Hunt Oil Co.’s Peruvian project appears to be sailing smooth seas and could begin operation in late 2007, early 2008, building an export/import link between the west coasts of North and South America.

Making further strides in strengthening its balance sheet, AGL Resources Inc. reported net income of $18.9 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2003, reflecting a 54% improvement over the $12.3 million, or $0.22 per basic and diluted share, recorded for 2Q2002.