Word

Shares of Allegheny Energy jumped more than 15% on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the troubled power company is closing in on an agreement with its creditors that would remove the threat of bankruptcy looming over Allegheny in recent months. The stock also became too hard to resist for investors after several investment firms upgraded their ratings on shares of Allegheny.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) showed Friday that its threats, even those against the White House, are not idle when it filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to obtain administration records associated with the task force that formulated the president’s national energy policy.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) showed Friday that its threats, even those against the White House, are not idle when it filed a long-awaited lawsuit in federal court to obtain administration records associated with the task force that formulated the president’s national energy policy.

Although tainted by the infamous “E”-word now permeating American news and political-speak, Northwest Natural Gas Corp. is pressing ahead on its plan to buy Enron Corp.’s utility subsidiary Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) for $1.8 billion. The two Portland, OR-based companies plan to form a new combination utility powerhouse by the fourth quarter this year.

“Flat” was the word of the day in the gas market Thursday. No point varied by more than a nickel from unchanged, and a large majority of them either showed no change or were up or down by only a penny or two.

Following word of the failed Enron Corp./Dynegy merger, fallout continues to rock the nation in more ways than one might expect. AGL Resources Inc. reported that Sequent Energy Management, its asset optimization subsidiary with a large portfolio of assets under management in the Southeast, has reached an agreement with Enron for early termination of an asset management contract related to Virginia Natural Gas (VNG), also a wholly owned subsidiary of AGL Resources.

Although the official word at Dynegy Corp. is that its merger with downtown Houston rival Enron Corp. remains on track, a source close to the negotiations said Dynegy is “talking to all of the parties involved in this transaction,” and suggested that the deal could be revised in the very near future.

As of Friday there was no word on when Boston Harbor would open again to LNG shipments. A spokesman for Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, who has been involved along with the U.S. Coast Guard in investigating security measures since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said that talks were continuing.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) said it has electricity, and it plans to resume futures trading operations as soon as its building, which is in close proximity to the World Trade Center in New York City, is safely accessible. Nymex said it plans to clear any trades made on Sept. 11 against Sept. 10 settlement prices and will post these trades during the next trading session.