An economic reality of the energy sector’s ongoing woes is that companies with cash and creditworthiness will be buying the assets of troubled companies who have been forced to sell to restore their tattered balance sheets. San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s CEO said his company will be among the buyers.
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Wood Fears Credit, Liquidity Woes Could Deter Infrastructure Construction
As several parent companies of the top natural gas pipelines face severe credit and liquidity problems, this could put a major crimp in future plans to bolster the nation’s energy infrastructure, both for gas and electricity, FERC Chairman Pat Wood told Congress Wednesday during a hearing examining energy infrastructure issues.
Sempra Eyes Possible Acquisitions as Competitors Sell Assets
An economic reality of the energy sector’s ongoing woes is that companies with cash and creditworthiness will be buying the assets of troubled companies who have been forced to sell to restore their tattered balance sheets. San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s CEO said his company will be among the buyers.
Williams’ Woes Mount: Moody’s Downgrades, FERC Plans Visit
In what was surely expected to be another long weekend for Williams Cos. Inc., FERC said Friday it will send staffers to the company’s Tulsa headquarters on Wednesday to examine its California natural gas trading data. Meanwhile, after the market closed Friday, Moody’s Investor Services downgraded Williams to one notch above “junk” status, noting that the company is failing to generate enough cash despite its asset sales, and faces more business risks ahead.
Waxman: E-Mails Reveal Lay ‘Misled’ Employees about Enron Woes
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, has obtained internal Enron Corp. e-mails that he says suggest that Chairman Kenneth Lay “misled” company employees about the prospects for Enron and its stock, just weeks before the energy trader collapsed and began its headlong plunge toward bankruptcy.
Enron Begins Shedding Assets; Bankruptcies, Lawsuits Mounting
As Enron Corp.’s woes pulled other energy companies into the maelstrom last week, the company saw its problems escalate, learning that among other things, due diligence issues from the bankruptcy may complicate its anticipated sale of $800 million in assets that were already on the books. Enron began shedding other assets as well and also began to work with its creditors on a plan that Chairman Kenneth Lay hopes will put the company back on its feet within a year.
El Paso: Enron’s Woes Unlikely to Have ‘Domino Effect’
The financial bloodletting at Enron Corp., which may be halted by the announced merger deal with Dynegy Inc., is unlikely to have a significant “domino effect” on other companies in the energy business due to their limited financial exposure to Enron, El Paso Corp. executive Ralph Eads told Wall Street analysts last Wednesday.
El Paso: Enron’s Woes Unlikely to Have ‘Domino Effect’
Even if the once high-flying Enron Corp. should cease to exist, either by being declared bankrupt or by being swallowed by Dynegy Corp. or another competitor, it is unlikely that this would have a significant “domino effect” on other companies in the energy business due to their limited financial exposure to Enron, El Paso Corp. executive Ralph Eads told Wall Street analysts Wednesday.
CA Electricity Loan Gets Costly; State Economic Summit Set
It was appropriately Halloween when the clock struck midnight for California’s electricity financing woes. A short-term, $4.3 billion “bridge” loan for buying wholesale electricity supplies reverted to a higher-interest, three-year term loan, adding to the costs of the state’s foray into power buying at a time when a statewide economic summit was scheduled to take place over the weekend to re-energize the state’s economy.
CA PUC Votes Against Rate Agreement Backing Bond Sale
Facing the prospect of a fiscal crisis flowing from its electricity woes, a majority of the five-member California Public Utilities Commission last week rejected the governor’s proposal for a rate agreement with the state power-buying agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR). The rate agreement had been billed as being essential to a future state bond sale backed by retail utility rates. The vote was 4-1, leaving a major question mark of how the state will pay for its power-buying spree.