Trades

A former Enron Corp. energy trader who had supervised the company’s West Power Division for the California spot electricity market, pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court Tuesday for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for making false statements to federal officials.

Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI), wobbling as a stand-alone retail and wholesale services company, last week said it had identified a series of four more related natural gas financial swap transactions that should not have been recorded. The transactions decreased RRI net income by $13 million in 2000 and increased net income by the same amount in 2001. After meeting with its independent auditors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, RRI determined that a restatement would not be required, but it will file an additional footnote disclosure as an amendment to its 2001 Form 10-K/A.

Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI), wobbling as a stand-alone retail and wholesale services company, revealed Tuesday that a review of its energy trading activities has identified a series of four related natural gas financial swap transactions that should not have been recorded.

When prices hit $10 last winter, that brought numerous plans out of the woodwork for new liquefied natural gas receiving terminals. Those proposed terminals in the Bahamas, Louisiana and in Texas along with the recommissioning and expansion of existing terminals along the East Coast will have a significant impact on basis and gas prices going forward, Ben Schlesinger, president of Schlesinger and Associates, said at GasMart/Power in Reno.

Although no one can tell what sort of business it will be, Enron Corp. traders are expected to begin work soon under their UBS Warburg Energy banner “NetCo” once the Swiss-based investment banker officially takes over. The deal is scheduled to close as early as this week, but it still may be several weeks before actual trading can begin.

Nymex Chairman Daniel Rappaport last week sent a letter to Rep.Larry Combest, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture,raising concern over a subsection of H.R. 4541, the “CommodityFutures Modernization Act of 2000,” which would exempt electronicenergy derivatives trading from regulatory oversight.

Cash prices gave their best efforts Tuesday at imitating theprevious day’s screen rise of slightly over 35 cents, and quite afew points came close. But when the initially firmer July futurescontract made an abrupt about-face at mid-morning Tuesday andheaded south to eventually wind up the day more than a dime lower,cash numbers dutifully followed the screen’s lead once again inlate trading.

Despite an impressive bounce Thursday afternoon and strongerover-the-counter trades Friday morning, natural gas futures werehit with a second day of losses Friday as locals deposited themarket lower after finding an intermediate layer of resistance at$4.16. The July and August contracts moved lower in lockstep, eachshedding 2.1 cents to finish the week at $4.043 and $4.022respectively. Estimated volume was 82,698.