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Hope that 11 missing crew members from drilling rig Deepwater Horizon would be found had mostly faded by Friday morning although rescuers continued to search. While some feared an environmental catastrophe, oil sheen on the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be from the explosion and not a leaking well, officials said.
Saying it was mostly expected as a one-quarter bump in the financial results this year, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy's CFO Wednesday outlined various regulatory issues, revenue hits and higher operating costs facing the multi-state utility holding company after reporting decreased first quarter profits -- $120 million, or 28 cents/diluted share, for this quarter ended March 31, compared to $151 million, or 36 cents/share, for the same quarter last year.
As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's recent distribution of $30 million aimed at advancing the natural gas vehicles (NGV), two separate projects are examining breakthroughs in fueling to make the vehicle operator more independent of public refueling stations.
Coming in well within industry expectations, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that 162 Bcf was withdrawn from underground stores for the week ended Dec. 23. The report fell on mostly deaf ears within the industry as February natural gas futures worked lower into the afternoon to settle at $11.223, down 41.4 cents from Wednesday's close.
With the heat expected to continue boosting power generation demand through the weekend and futures showing no signs of weakness, the week-long cash market rally pressed on Friday although it lost some steam at some locations in the Northeast, particularly Iroquois Zone 2, which had been one of the hottest points over the course of the week. Iroquois prices were flat in the mid $7.60s, but Dracut and Tennessee Zone 6 added more than 30 cents.