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The end is in sight for the long winning streak chalked up by Canadian natural-gas exporters, as deliveries remain consistently off their formerly torrid pace in setting 14 consecutive annual sales records in the United States. Canadian gas deliveries to the U.S. fell by 5.3% to 2.745 Tcf in the first three-quarters of the current gas contract year that ends Oct. 31 from 2.9 Tcf in the same period of 2000-01, the National Energy Board reports.

If Houston-based Enron Corp., the acknowledged largest energy trader in the world, had a wish list of things it might want to add to its bartering bag, it might be to trade in this entire year. So far, the news seems to have gone from bad to worse, with business deals gone sour, the CEO abruptly departing last summer, the first quarterly loss in more than four years, rumors of shady business deals, and as of Friday, a plunging stock price that seems to find no floor.

In the article titled “NiSource Puts Columbia Energy’s E&P Assets Up for Sale” in Natural Gas Intelligence, Oct. 14, 2002, the following paragraph should be substituted for paragraphs 7-9. Correcting and stating that the merger involved Columbia Energy Group instead of Columbia Energy Resources. NGI regrets the error.

As long as TXU Corp. can deleverage itself and lower its debt-to-capital ratio in a “fairly rapid fashion,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) analyst Judith Waite believes the company shows strong support for an investment-grade rating.

Continuing to take the low road on certain energy companies, Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) Friday knocked the props out from under American Electric Power (AEP) and El Paso Corp., removing the “outperform” label and dropping them back “in-line” with the rest of the gas and electric utility sector.

Taking the offensive in what has become an increasingly stressful time for energy companies, Aquila Inc.’s CEO said last week the company may sell up to $1 billion in assets — twice as much as announced two months ago — in an effort to improve the company’s wobbling credit quality. It also has cut 200 employees from its merchant services and corporate staff and expects the previously announced reduction of 500 positions at its utility companies to be completed by July.

Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week that it has been subpoenaed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as part of an energy trading investigation. The company, which markets gas and power, said it would cooperate with the CFTC but failed to provide further details about the investigation.

Attempting to shed its former identity as Reliant Energy Inc., CenterPoint Energy Inc. unveiled its first earnings statement as a new holding company, reporting third quarter earnings down 12% compared with the same period a year ago. However, CenterPoint management said going forward, things look better, and they increased year-over-year earnings guidance Ito a range of $1.30 to $1.35, up from a previous forecast of $1.17 to $1.22 per diluted share.

Marking the second time the company has reduced its earnings guidance in the last four months, NUI Corp. said Friday it anticipates fiscal 2002 earnings from continuing operations for the year that ended Sept. 30 to be between $0.85 to $0.95 per share, excluding the effect of the change in accounting, severance and discontinued items. In July, the company lowered its guidance to $1.50 to $1.60 per share from its previous guidance of $1.80 – $1.90 per share (see Daily GPI, July 17).