Surge

What its executives are calling a “significant rally” of Eastern coal prices could fuel an upswing in the wholesale market for natural gas-fired electricity beginning next year, according to Calpine Corp. officials responding to questions from financial analysts Thursday.

Top U.S.-based independent Devon Energy Corp.’s earnings and production surged in 2003 on higher commodity prices and its acquisition of Ocean Energy, the company said Thursday. Net earnings climbed more than 1,500%, assuring last year as the most profitable in Devon’s history.

Soaring natural gas prices, continued firm oil prices and stable drilling costs, have prompted analysts at Raymond James & Associates to raise their price targets on 22 exploration and production companies.

Following Thursday’s price surge that seemed to many to have no visible means of support, Friday’s numbers were in retreat nearly across the board. A smidgen of flatness in the Rockies belied overall softness that saw declines ranging from about a nickel to nearly half a dollar. Most were in the range of 10-30 cents.

As a result of last week’s soaring natural gas prices, continued firm oil prices and stable drilling costs, Raymond James & Associates said it is raising its price targets on 22 exploration and production companies that it has labeled Strong Buy and Outperform.

It was a given that weekend prices would rise; the question was by how much. The answer: generally about 40 to 60 cents across the country, with no area left out. The Northeast led the overall advance with upticks reaching nearly a dollar.

Feeding off Thursday’s late-day price surge, the natural gas futures market soared higher Friday as fund traders covered shorts on increasingly constructive technical factors. The rally came as a surprise to traders — many of whom had favored a delayed bearish reaction to the seemingly price-negative storage news received by the market Thursday morning (32 Bcf injection).

Pushed by a new spread of cold weather that limited highs above 70 to the Southeast and promised to engulf much of that region the following day, the market recorded strong upticks across the board Wednesday. Tuesday’s screen gain of nearly 16 cents also lent some delayed support to cash prices.

While the recent surge in natural gas prices has found more than one energy company on the wrong side of a trading position, a top executive with American Electric Power (AEP) told financial professionals last Wednesday that his company stands to gain from the run up.