Summer

A hot summer which boosted electricity use, and increases in itsEnergy Services division led Duke Energy’s 42% increase in 1998third quarter basic earnings which registered $423.8 million or$1.18 per share, up from $298.4 or 83 cents per share for the samequarter in 1997.

Natural gas is second only to the newly established electricitymarket in terms of volatility, and Tuesday it did little to dispelthat notion as the market dipped momentarily, only to spikedramatically higher in the last 90 minutes of trading, leaving eventhe most weathered of bulls surprised by the advance. Octobersettled at $2.132, a 17.8-cent gain for the day and nearly ahalf-dollar above the $1.63 low established less than two weeksago. Estimated volume confirmed the active trading with over120,000 contracts changing hands.

Ameren Energy started its electric and gas trading business offon the right foot this summer, getting into the market just in timeto make a small killing when electric prices spiked in the Midwestduring the last week in June. The company started out with just afraction of the personnel it expects to have on board by the end ofthe year.

Although the power industry has been rocked by sharp pricerun-ups this summer, average real electricity prices are projectedto drop by more than 25% by 2015 largely due to improvedefficiencies and cost reductions brought about by electricityrestructuring, the Gas Research Institute (GRI) said in a new studyissued yesterday.

If you thought a new pooling system on El Paso Natural Gas wouldbe approved in time for summer vacation, it looks like you may haveto sweat it out for another season. After months of hair pullingscrutiny and debate, FERC has decided to reject El Paso’s March 16filing for scheduling gas pooling transactions on its system andconvene yet another technical conference on the complex matter.

The May Nymex contract surged 13.3 cents to $2.668 Wednesday,despite cash market prices which remained relatively unchanged. Thereason why? “Who really knows, but what I do know enough funds wereconvinced this market was a play to trigger buy stops above $2.61.Estimated volume of more than 80,000 contracts tells you that,” asource told GPI.