Threat

Despite chances of Hurricane Isabel entering the Gulf of Mexico continuing to fall, most points ranged from flat to as much as a dime or so higher Monday. The market was spotted with small losses here and there, but the only sizeable one was a dime-plus decline in San Juan Basin.

Responding to FERC’s threat to revoke the energy marketing privileges of wrongdoers, Reliant Energy Services last week acknowledged the actions of one of its power traders were “plainly wrong,” but it asked the agency for leniency in light of the trading reforms enacted at the company. BP Energy Co. apologized for the misconduct of one of its traders and asked for mercy as well. A group of Enron Corp. power and gas marketers, however, challenged the Commission’s action, claiming it was based on faulty and “ambiguous” charges.

Responding to FERC’s threat to revoke the energy marketing privileges of wrongdoers, Reliant Energy Services acknowledged the actions of its power trader were “plainly wrong,” but it asked the agency for leniency in light of the trading reforms enacted at the company. BP Energy Co. apologized for the misconduct of one of its traders and asked for mercy as well. A group of Enron Corp. power and gas marketers, however, challenged the Commission’s action, claiming it was based on faulty and “ambiguous” charges.

Under the threat of being ousted through a proxy battle started by one of largest shareholders, El Paso Corp.’s board of directors announced late Wednesday that it has appointed Ronald L. Kuehn, Jr. to serve as interim CEO and chairman of the board, replacing William A. Wise, effective immediately.

The October aftermarket opened on a heavily bullish note at eastern, southwestern and California points Monday with cash prices shooting up between about a quarter and a little more than 50 cents. However, Rockies numbers were flat to down as much as 20 cents, one source said. Lili officially became a hurricane — the fourth of the 2002 Atlantic season — Monday morning and was staying on a track similar to the one that Isidore followed before it caused widespread production outages in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

With tropical storm threats fading rapidly and demand fundamentals staying on the weak side, cash prices ignored a major expiration-day rebound by October futures and continued to fall everywhere except in the Rockies Thursday. The Rockies gains were small at a dime or less, while losses elsewhere tended to range from about 2 cents in Northern California to nearly half a dollar at some Northeast citygates.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last week that the little devil El Nino is back, warming up the waters in the equatorial Pacific region and possibly setting the stage for a weaker hurricane season but also an increase in the number of storms next winter along the East Coast.

The February aftermarket got off to a fairly strong start Thursday with swing quotes up a few cents from end-of-January levels in most cases and generally about 15-20 cents ahead of apparent monthly indexes.

Proposed tariff changes that could jeopardize the future existence of the controversial full-requirements (FR) contracts on El Paso Natural Gas came under attack last week from the pipeline’s East-of-California (EOC) customers.