Threats

Calling the California Attorney General’s lawsuit without merit and an outgrowth of legal threats, Sempra Energy late Wednesday accused the state’s chief law enforcement officer with filing a bogus lawsuit to force a settlement.

Based on expectations that Rita damage will be minimal and major hurricanes threats have ended for the 2005 season, energy consultant Stephen Smith said he’s betting Henry Hub cash ($15.27 on Sept. 22) will come tumbling down over the next week to 10 days and November futures ($12.687 Friday) will fall by more than $1/MMBtu before expiring in late October. Smith and others are seeing demand destruction about matching shut-ins going forward.

The cash market recorded a very mild rally Monday in which a few points managed gains in the teens, while the majority ranged from barely lower to a dime higher. Intra-Alberta saw the only significant decline of nearly C10 cents.

An absence of severe weather threats, lower industrial load over a weekend, and the screen’s previous-day quarter decline set the stage for further mostly moderate softening in a sedate Friday market. A small uptick in Tennessee Zone 6 ran contrary to losses at all other points ranging from less than a nickel to nearly 30 cents.

ChevronTexaco Corp. has evacuated staff and shut down most of its oil and gas installations in Nigeria after fighting between ethnic militants and government forces appeared to be escalating on Monday. Nigeria, the fifth-largest petroleum supplier to the United States and likely a major liquefied natural gas supplier in the future, has been undergoing substantial economic reform under a new civilian administration as it transitions from a military government.

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 General Accounting Office (GAO) showed Friday that its threats, even those against the White House, are not idle when it filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to obtain administration records associated with the task force that formulated the president’s national energy policy.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) showed Friday that its threats, even those against the White House, are not idle when it filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to obtain administration records associated with the task force that formulated the president’s national energy policy.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the list of threats and vulnerabilities to the nation’s energy infrastructure is “a lot longer now,” said Robbie Gillham, manager of global security for Conoco Inc. At the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s (IOGCC) panel discussion, the topic of the day focused mainly on the role states must play in maintaining, protecting and encouraging domestic oil and natural gas production during a crisis.