Daily GPI

After seeing its corporate credit rating downgraded to two levels below “junk status” and its stock skid to a low of 78 cents at one point last week, Williams Cos. Inc. got some much-needed good news Friday. First, the company announced it had reached an agreement in principle with California and a number of other parties, including Washington and Oregon, on a settlement to resolve all outstanding litigation/claims and refunds for electricity overcharges, and then FERC signaled it probably would not strip Williams of its license to sell power at unregulated rates.

TransCanada PipeLines Limited posted C$202 million or C$0.42 per share net income from continuing operations for the second quarter 2002, compared to second quarter 2001 net earnings of C$175 million or C$0.37 per share. The company noted that second quarter 2002 results include $25 million of earnings related to the recent Fair Return Application decision by the National Energy Board (NEB) for the period Jan. 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002.

Natural gas production appears to have fallen slightly in the second quarter — dropping more than 8% from the same period a year ago, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. A report issued Friday,on the quarterly results of 24 producers that account for 28% of the gas supplies in the Lower 48 has so far found a sequential decline from the first quarter of 0.6%, with gas volumes by the 24 totaling 11,391 MMcf/d.

After stumbling last heating season Canadian natural-gas exports show signs of getting back on their feet, but when they will resume growing — or even whether they can — remains an open question. For the first time since the onset of energy deregulation and free trade, exports fell in the opening half of the current natural-gas contract year ending Oct. 31, according to records of the National Energy Board.

The managing director of Fitch Ratings Global Power Group said Friday that the U.S. wholesale gas and power marketers have a “heady cocktail” in front of them, in light of regulatory investigations, accounting irregularities and, for most anyway, a massive flight of investors. Those under the most scrutiny, said Richard Hunter, have “undermined the stronger companies.” And he added that a more liquid market “will not happen anytime soon.”

As sources had anticipated, forecasts of high temperatures once again infesting much of the nation were insufficient to overcome the double drag on prices of a big futures drop on the previous afternoon and the fall-off in industrial load that accompanies a weekend. Outside of continuing moderate firmness at Rockies and Pacific Northwest points, the rest of Friday’s market ranged from flat to about 20 cents lower. Declines on either side of a dime were most prevalent.

Michigan Attorney General Jennifer M. Granholm announced Thursday that Energy America, North America’s largest unregulated energy wholesale company, will pay refunds to consumers, reform its marketing practices, and pay the state’s costs for its alleged violations of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. The action came in response to over 600 customer complaints regarding Energy America’s Michigan natural gas marketing practices.

Following a topsy-turvy span of trading in which prices fell Thursday as quickly as they rose Wednesday, natural gas futures sputtered sideways to slightly higher Friday as traders gently covered shorts ahead of the weekend and the Monday expiration of the August contract. August closed 3.4 cents higher at $2.936. For the second day in a row, volume in the gas pit was heavy with an estimated 171,719 contracts changing hands.

Florida Gas Transmission lifted an Overage Alert Day notice Friday that had been in place since July 15.