Wide

Alaska voters approved by a wide margin last Tuesday a ballot initiative to create the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority as a public corporation of the state for the purpose of acquiring North Slope gas and building a pipeline to deliver supplies to the Port of Valdez in Prince William Sound, where the gas would be liquefied and marketed to the Lower 48 states.

Alaska voters approved by a wide margin Tuesday a ballot initiative to create the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority as a public corporation of the state for the purpose of acquiring North Slope gas and building a pipeline to deliver supplies to Port Valdez in Prince William Sound, where the gas would be liquefied and marketed to the Lower 48 states.

After notching a new 16-month high and cutting a wide 27-cent trading range last Thursday, natural gas futures settled down on Friday as buyers stepped back to survey the situation. Without that buying pressure, the market dropped precipitously at mid-day only to rebound modestly at the closing bell. November closed at $4.239, down 6 cents for the session, but up 9.3 cents for the week.

The Energy Information Administration’s Roy Kass said proposed changes to the weekly gas storage survey probably won’t be made anytime soon because of the variety and complexity of the comments and the nature of the inquiry.

Officials at Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) are expecting extremely depressed gas prices and wide basis differentials in the Rocky Mountain region this year to provide enough of an incentive for producers to finally step up to the plate and support an eastern greenfield pipeline project, and possibly the switching of Wyoming Interstate to westbound flow to support demand from Kern River shippers at the Opal hub.

Officials at Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) are expecting extremely depressed gas prices and wide basis differentials in the Rocky Mountain region this year to provide enough of an incentive for producers to finally step up to the plate and support an eastern greenfield pipeline project, and possibly the switching of Wyoming Interstate to westbound flow to support demand from Kern River shippers at the Opal hub.

California’s Attorney General last Wednesday attempted to open another chapter in the state’s wide-ranging attempts to secure billions of dollars of refunds for the wholesale power it and the state’s major utilities purchased in 2000-2001, filing a new request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for refunding alleged overcharges paid by San Diego consumers. An ongoing FERC refund investigation covering the entire western power markets does not cover the summer period in question because of what the federal agency claims are legal restrictions preventing it from doing so.

“The breach of trust is deep and wide,” Priory said in a speech to the Economic Club of Detroit. “Business today is suffering from a crisis in confidence. This is no wake up call; it’s a screeching red alert.” Shareholder confidence is at an all-time low, he said.

Exposure to possible losses due to energy giant Enron’s financial failure continued to spread like a worldwide epidemic last week with companies and financial institutions around the world reporting potential losses, reflecting the broad reach both of the company’s business and its stock.