Wise

Even with the “unlimited” money available to spend by oil and natural gas producers in the last five years, only gas has gained volume-wise on a global basis, which indicates gas, mostly in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas-to-liquids products, will continue to take a bigger share of the market, a John S. Herold energy researcher said Friday.

Following strong bullish moves on Wednesday and Thursday, July natural gas futures on Friday kept the upward pressure on, but relaxed a bit range-wise, trading within a slim 11.5-cent corridor.

Top U.S.-based independent Devon Energy Corp.’s earnings and production surged in 2003 on higher commodity prices and its acquisition of Ocean Energy, the company said Thursday. Net earnings climbed more than 1,500%, assuring last year as the most profitable in Devon’s history.

The American Gas Association (AGA) told FERC it probably would be wise not to open a whole other can of worms by addressing the recent recommendations of the Virginia Industrial Gas Users’ Association (VIGUA). AGA said the VIGUA suggestions, in particular that FERC prohibit local distribution companies from simply transferring control of their firm transportation capacity to affiliates, go far beyond the scope of the Commission’s proposed rulemaking on a marketer Code of Conduct.

ChevronTexaco is having one of its best years ever exploration-wise, and is well on its way toward creating a global natural gas business, according to CEO Dave O’Reilly.

The 2003 spending guidances reported by several of the leading North American producers have made clear that exploration and production (E&P) activities are a priority, but spending will be more focused, more streamlined and more cash-conservative.

Dynegy Inc.’s new-and-improved business plan is not enough cashflow wise to fully offset the massive amount of debt leveraging that carried over from its former business strategy, according to an analyst with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P). The ratings agency last Tuesday cut the company and its subsidiaries another notch, to “B” from “B+”.

Dynegy Inc.’s new-and-improved business plan is not enough cash-flow wise to fully offset the massive amount of debt leveraging that carried over from its former business strategy, according to an analyst with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P). The ratings agency on Tuesday cut the company and its subsidiaries another notch, to “B” from “B+”.

Robert G. Phillips has been named chairman of the board of El Paso Energy Partners, at the same time El Paso Corp. Chairman William A. Wise, President H. Brent Austin, and another member of the corporation board, Malcolm Wallop, resigned from the partners board. El Paso Corp. is the general partner and owns 26% of El Paso Energy Partners. The company said the moves were “designed to align the partnership with certain corporate governance recommendations recently announced by the New York Stock Exchange. Phillips has been on the partners board since 1998.