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After failing to fill in the chart gap created by the higher opening, natural gas futures erupted to new 16-month highs Monday, as traders bought heavily into the season’s first blast of cold weather. Including Monday’s price hike, the November contract has notched gains in four out of the last five sessions, advancing 17% off the $3.67 low Oct 7. It closed at $4.303 Monday, up 15.7 cents for the session. At 104,033, heavy estimated volume was proof that few traders elected to observe the Columbus Day holiday.

Richmond, VA-based Dominion announced strong third quarter earnings bolstered by higher returns in its pipeline and E&P units, and saying it was on track to continue the trend into the fourth quarter and come close to its stated earnings guidance of $4.90 to $4.95.

Officials overseeing Mexico’s multiple-service contract (MSC) project took comments from the government, outside consultants and potential contractors before agreeing to move their first natural gas contract bidding dates to February instead of December. The extra time, they said, will be used by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) to add new public works laws into the contracts, as well as give bidders the opportunity to include possible exploration and development costs in next year’s budgets.

The once Titanic-like TXU Corp. was bailing water at a furious pace Monday morning, after a devastating collision with European power markets. By 9 a.m., it had squeezed 80% from its once untouchable quarterly dividend, and cast adrift its European subsidiaries, sinking a plan to infuse $700 million in equity in operations, eliminating them from a cross-default provision on its $500 million bank facility and ultimately deciding that “all portions” of the European business are up for sale.

This winter is expected to be close to normal on a national basis, with the eastern United States expected to be colder than the West, according to Salomon Smith Barney’s (SSB) “2002-2003 Winter Outlook,” released Friday. The outlook was authored by the investment group’s noted meteorologists, Jon Davis and Mark Russo.

CMS Energy Corp. will be using natural gas in storage as part of a collateral package to raise $200-$250 million in financing for its main subsidiary, Consumers Energy, to eliminate the need for Consumers Energy to go to the capital markets for the remainder of 2002. Consumers Energy currently has about 95 Bcf of working gas in its underground storage fields.

With little fanfare, following three conference calls over the course of the week, late Friday, Dallas-based TXU Corp. said it would increase its available cash by $2.6 billion by Monday or Tuesday, drawing upon its unsecured bank facilities at TXU US Holdings and TXU Energy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted out a final rule last Wednesday that will require regulated natural gas and electric companies to provide fuller, more accurate disclosure to the agency about their use of certain investment securities, derivative instruments and hedging activities. In expanding its existing accounting-reporting regulations, the Commission said it hopes to keep closer tabs on an energy industry that has been rocked by numerous scandals during the past year.

Coming closer by the day to reaching its planned $1 billion asset divestiture goal, Aquila, Inc. said Friday that its subsidiary UtiliCorp NZ Ltd. has completed the sale of its 70.2% interest in UnitedNetworks Ltd., a New Zealand-based energy company, to Vector Ltd. for approximately $503 million. Earlier in the week, the Kansas City, MO-based company announced that it had completed its $265 million sale of its Southeast Texas and Mid-Continent natural gas pipeline systems and natural gas and gas liquids processing assets, as well as its 50% stake in the Oasis pipeline system, to Energy Transfer Co.