Both El Paso Energy and Coastal Corp. wracked up recordfirst-quarter earnings last week, but for completely differentreasons.
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Analysts Say Producers Are Ripe for the Picking
The majors have had their day, now it’s the independents’ turnin the merger mart, and analysts are targeting Burlington Resourcesand possibly even Mitchell Energy as companies in play.
1998 Highlights: Oil Prices, Mergers, Power Gen (Retail Wimps Out)
Last year clearly didn’t turn out as most industry officialsexpected, according to a new survey by the Washington InternationalEnergy Group, a Washington, D.C.-based energy consulting firm. Thefirm’s 1999 Energy Industry Outlook notes the retail marketrevolution “wimped out,” mergers were quite a bit larger thanexpected, the oil price glut was more serious than many thought,and power generation became much more important than most initiallybelieved.
Survey Puts Power Generation Business on Top
Last year clearly didn’t turn out like most industry officialsexpected, according to a new survey by the Washington InternationalEnergy Group, a Washington, D.C.-based energy consulting firm. Thefirm’s 1999 Energy Industry Outlook notes the retail marketrevolution “wimped out,” mergers were quite a bit larger thanexpected, the oil price glut was more serious than many thought andpower generation became much more important than most initiallybelieved.
Washington Water Power to Consolidate Purchases
Washington Water Power is asking state regulators to approve anew natural gas purchasing plan which will turn the purchasefunction for its residential customers over to Avista Energy, itsunregulated affiliate.
Survey: Majority Bet on Gas for Tough Times Ahead
When the going gets tough, the tough turn to gas. That’s oneconclusion that can be drawn from results of Arthur Andersen’s 11thannual U.S. Oil and Gas Industry Outlook Survey. While 70% of the83 companies responding to the survey said they plan to cutexploration spending or hold it at current levels in the comingyear, gas will get a bigger share of the attention. Nearly half ofthe respondents (49%) plan to focus on gas exploration, an increaseof 20% from a year ago. Another 39% of respondents said they willbalance efforts between oil and gas.
Polls Show CA Prop 9 Losing Ground
California’s statewide electricity ballot referendum that wouldturn back parts of the state’s ongoing power industry restructuringis losing by a bigger margin in the latest nonpartisan FieldInstitute survey, but the percentage of undecided voters (36%) isstill large, according to political polling experts.
Technicals Turn Against Hopeful Bulls
The futures market again came under heavy selling pressure onWednesday as new bearish technical factors added to the alreadynegative fundamental outlook. The September contract never had achance, managing to post a high yesterday that matched Tuesday’slow, while slipping 6.6 cents to settle at $1.762. Estimated volumesubstantiated the price move, with a whopping 93,150 contractschanging hands.
August Futures Turn to Access Trading For Price Move
Many people have been saying August is a difficult futurescontract to trade right now because of a lack of clear cut marketdirection, and the last two trading days have proven those peoplecorrect. After closing unchanged Tuesday, the August contract wasonly able to gain 0.1 cents to settle Wednesday at $2.366. “How amI supposed to make a living in this kind of environment?” a brokerjested.
Refund Pass-through Challenged; Hearings Sought
The producer refund case has taken a unique turn as severalpipelines have stepped up to argue that while natural gas producersmust pay them the $500 million in refunds – yesterday was thedeadline for payment – they don’t believe they have to pass thatmoney on to their customers.