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Enron Mail |
Energy Insight News for Friday, November 16, 2001
Terrorism elevates energy policy importance Even with a high-powered electron microscope, it is hard to see any silver lining in the clouds surrounding the events of Sept. 11. The attacks on the U.S. did, however, spotlight the country's need for more domestic oil and gas reserves and a uniform national energy policy. Initially, the Bush/Cheney energy plan was bumped down on the White House and Capitol Hill's list of legislative priorities. But that plan, in different formulations, has begun to resurface, propelled by a new sense of urgency that could turn into a crisis if retaliatory American military action destabilizes an already unstable Middle East, bringing about another oil shock. The war against terrorism could still push energy off the political agenda because lawmakers have no time to focus on it. But commodity indices could end up benefiting should policy makers decide to pursue U.S. energy independence, even though it remains unclear, as yet, how that might ultimately play out. American independents have always had an ambiguous attitude toward the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). For decades, the cartel has kept global oil prices, for the most part, high, which obviously has helped U.S. producers. "Independents have a great love-hate relationship with OPEC. When they are doing what they are doing now-that is, keeping the price at a range which makes sense for them economically-it generally works out pretty well for us as well, because it's a price that keeps oil in the $20-something range," said Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), the industry's Washington-based trade group. "And that's about where it needs to be to have a healthy domestic industry. But when they (OPEC members) start getting into the fight that they got into for market share in 1998 or 1999, then they have the capability to really drive the price down." Read the entire story at http://www.energyinsight.com. Also, catch the latest news headlines on Energy Insight Executive, updated twice daily. /////////////////////////////////////////////// Market Brief Thursday, November 15 Stocks Close Change % Change DJIA 9,872.39 48.8 0.50% DJ 15 Util. 289.76 (3.9) -1.34% NASDAQ 1,900.57 (2.62) -0.14% S&P 500 1,142.24 1.0 0.09% Market Vols Close Change % Change AMEX (000) 171,605 8,536.0 5.23% NASDAQ (000) 2,020,360 (155,735.0) -7.16% NYSE (000) 1,463,225 48,591.0 3.43% Commodities Close Change % Change Crude Oil (Dec) 17.72 (2.02) -10.23% Heating Oil (Dec) 0.5155 (0.046) -8.14% Nat. Gas (Henry) 2.565 (0.111) -4.15% Propane (Dec) 31.50 (2.75) -8.03% Palo Verde (Dec) 26.25 (1.00) -3.67% COB (Dec) 31.50 (1.50) -4.55% PJM (Dec) 27.50 (0.10) -0.36% Dollar US $ Close Change % Change Australia $ 1.929 0.004 0.21% Canada $ 1.59 (0.005) -0.31% Germany Dmark 2.22 0.005 0.23% Euro 0.8819 (0.000) -0.06% Japan ?en 122.4 0.800 0.66% Mexico NP 9.21 0.020 0.22% UK Pound 0.6985 0.0052 0.75% Foreign Indices Close Change % Change Arg MerVal 227.33 5.85 2.64% Austr All Ord. 3,276.00 7.00 0.21% Braz Bovespa 12825.62 0.00 0.00% Can TSE 300 7262.90 (86.55) -1.18% Germany DAX 5006.33 52.80 1.07% HK HangSeng 11239.39 289.35 2.64% Japan Nikkei 225 10489.89 403.13 4.00% Mexico IPC 5778.65 26.93 0.47% UK FTSE 100 5,238.20 (2.50) -0.05% Source: Yahoo! & TradingDay.com ////////////////////////////////////////////// Executive News Kuwait says OPEC's target price band too high Kuwait believes OPEC's average target price of $25/barrel for OPEC's crude basket, mid-range of a $22-$28 price band, is too high given the state of the world economy, Kuwaiti oil minister Adel al-Subih said Thursday. "We as Kuwait...would be satisfied with the lower half of the band," Subih said, adding that Kuwait had proposed lowering the band to $20-$25/barrel. "I think OPEC will reconsider the price band at a later stage." Subih said Kuwait had also suggested that the price band mechanism become "a target rather than a mechanism." Under the mechanism, OPEC could cut or increase production by 500,000 barrels per day if prices strayed from the band for a determined period of time, but this has been allowed to lapse since the recent slide in prices and the economic uncertainty following the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. Subih said Kuwait had based next year's budget on a price of $15/barrel for Kuwaiti crude. "I see there will be very hard times to come in the form of very low prices and then things will square out," Subih said when asked how long it would be before non-OPEC agreed to cooperate. But he stressed OPEC's move did not constitute a price war. "We are not talking about a price war. That would mean dumping oil. We have huge excess capacity and that we do not intend to do," Subih said. He added OPEC was making an "offer that is hard to refuse" in offering to cut 10 barrels in return for one from non-OPEC producers. "There is no time frame but I would say before January, we will have something developing. Already there are positive signals from non-OPEC producers." Subih said OPEC had been forced to act because independent producers had failed to respond to calls for voluntarily output cuts on three occasions this year when OPEC had slashed output by 3.5 million barrels per day. Caterpillar and FuelCell Energy agree to jointly distribute fuel cell technology Caterpillar Inc. and FuelCell Energy, Inc. have signed an agreement to distribute fuel cell products for industrial and commercial use. Under the agreement, Caterpillar will distribute FuelCell Energy products through selected Caterpillar dealers in the United States. Both companies will also pursue an alliance to jointly develop fuel cell systems, including highly efficient hybrid products integrating Caterpillar's turbine engine technology. "We view this agreement with Caterpillar as a significant milestone for FuelCell Energy, because it will strengthen our market opportunities and enhance our distribution channels," said Jerry Leitman, FuelCell Energy's president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "Both companies stand to benefit from this strategic relationship as we work together to provide efficient fuel cell energy to distributed power generation markets--particularly in California and the northeastern United States." To subscribe to our Executive News Service, which is updated twice daily, log on to http://www.energyinsight.com, or contact Platt's Direct Response Team at 1-800-424-2908 (if outside the United States call 1-720-548-5700). ///////////////////////////////////////////////
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