Territory

Mirant shares rose sharply last Monday and remained in positive weekly territory on Friday after CEO Marce Fuller said the company would beat earnings forecasts and should have a solution to its credit woes in place before the end of the summer. However, the solution is likely to look a lot different than what was expected a few months ago when the idea was first announced, she said.

Despite their success in keeping the market in negative territory for most of Thursday’s trading session, natural gas bears had very little to show for their efforts. Since plummeting 13 cents in the minutes following a larger-than-expected storage injection Wednesday, July natural gas futures have actually gained ground, with prices rising late Wednesday and then hanging around the $3.80 level yesterday. Although the change column shows a 1.1-cent decline for the day, it belies the market’s inability not only to test support at $3.67, but also to make a lower-low on the day.

FERC moved its electric power transmission policy into newterritory last week with the approval of DTE Energy’s spin-offtransmission system, International Transmission Co. (ITC), as anindependent transco with rates similar to those of a regionaltransmission organization (RTO). (ER00-3295)

The Yukon Territory’s new Liberal government has stepped forwardto go to bat for a revival of the dormant Alaska Natural GasTransportation System (ANGTS) as its enthusiastic choice for anorthern pipeline project.

After a brief foray in negative territory, natural gas futuresbubbled higher yesterday, preserving bulls’ 6-day and countingstring of price advances. With yesterday’s 4.2-cent rise, the Junecontract has climbed almost 40 cents from $3.01 lows notched on May5. June closed at $3.396.

Indianapolis-based Indiana Energy continued to expand itsregional service territory last week through a $425 millionpurchase of the retail gas distribution business of DPL Inc. ofDayton, OH. The deal, which will grow its distribution customerbase by more than 300,000 customers and will add 5,000 miles ofdistribution pipe, comes only a few months after the $1.9 billionmerger of Indiana Energy with Sigcorp, the Evansville, ID-basedholding company of Southern Indiana Gas and Electric (Sigeco),which provides gas and electricity to 150,000 customers insouthwest Indiana.

The Web site www.energyOn.com of Englewood, CO, has expanded itsservice territory to include gas service for business andresidential consumers in Maryland. The site currently offers aselection of competitive energy suppliers and products forconsumers in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, California,the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. The site alsorecently expanded the Pennsylvania market to include York County.

Cash prices Monday recovered all or most of the territory theyhad lost on Friday-and even more in some cases. Buoyed by a sharplyhigher screen and even a bit of re-emerging air conditioning load,cash numbers moved up by about a dime or more at virtually allpoints except Northern California, topped off by scattered gains of20-21 cents. Even crude oil futures, which had been in free-falllate last week, added a little psychological strength by clawingtheir way back above $21/bbl.

Due to confusion over service area territory, 2,300 East OhioGas (EOG) customers wrongfully switched suppliers from the utilityto ACN Energy, the marketer admitted last week. A letter has beensent to the involved customers. No money changed hands and ACN hastaken responsibility for the mistake.