>>>If CHK really wanted to shake things up they could purchase enough gas in the futures and spot market to cover their hedge committments,<<<
What a long strange trip its been.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
You see, with warmth in Dec '01, NG tanking because of large builds in the cool summer of '01, and remembering the devastation of '98, I sold my CHK at $6ish (down from $10) and bought a boatload of Calpine at $13ish. You see electricity had already bottomed, and it was clear to me that NG was going down further, so the spark spread (spinning NG into electric) would rise, and so would Calpine's profits. Besides, Calpine had bought a bunch of NG fields on its own.
And then Sens Boxer, Feinstein, and former Gov Gray Davis took a bead on Caline and its peers and accused them of withholding electric from the market during the crisis. Flood main ballast, boys. You should have seen that puppy tank.
So tell me please. Shouldn't the government take CHK behind the woodshed for intentionally withholding NG from the market?? After all, it is such a vital commodity. Peoples' lives depend upon it. They are MANIPULATING the market.
I guess that it isn't manipulation if you are trying to move NG from $4.50 to $5, but if you are trying to move it from $14.50 to $15, God help you. El Paso paid $1.5 billion - thats right, with a "B" - to settle with California when it was accused of operating its pipe into California at less than max pressure during the crisis.
I think that CHK should write a check for about $4 to each and every one of the 300 million Americans they manipulated today. My gracious. You would think they are actually trying to make a profit.
Edit:
Does anyone besides me think it a little fishy that congress was holding hearings into high gasoline prices lo these short 12 months ago, when the winds of KatRita had barely blown themselves out, but they have not yet appropriated any funds to alleviate the sufferings of the poor CHK (or EPEX or XEC) shareholders who were so obviously damaged by the warm winter weather in January??? For what are they waiting??? It is the custom to indemnify the public when the weather spoils their financial well being. I will be waiting by the curb tomorrow morning for my government check. |
