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Strategies & Market Trends : Mr. Pink's Picks: selected event-driven value investments -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MAELING who wrote (16771)	7/28/2002 1:54:42 PM
From: Kevin Podsiadlik	Respond to of 18998

(EP) Try this out for starters: thestreet.com

To: MAELING who wrote (16771)	7/28/2002 2:38:06 PM
From: Mad2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18998

If you can figure out EP let us know. I took a look at ML recent pronouncments on EP and the sector and they are titled; Can't catch a falling safe and Midsummer Night(s)mare Admitedly ML is defending EP and particularly EPN, the latter being smaller, not in merchant sales and publically traded. ML cites EP has 4.6 bil in cash and funding. Frankly the 64 billion dollar questions are; 1) What role have the energy merchants had in driving up the cost of electricity/energy (big issue out west)? Calf has tried to lower the cap they pay. 2) How will EP's role in round trip trades play into this? It is cited that they are transparant and intended to monetize the restructuring of contracts. 3) What kind of exposure does EP have should liquidity issues plague the merchants and others EP has contracts with? As I said, I haven't the foggest. (S&P reaffirmed EP with a BBB). this is against a backdrop of the potential for naturl gas to crater. It should be noted that gas in storage is near the limit. there is a real possibility that pending how the weather behaves, with storage facilities near their peak capacity, should we get milder weather, gas prices could head to the dumper. How this will effect EP I haven't the foggest, yet problems beget problems. Comming off of last years high gas prices commercial users have continued buying for storage. While long term fundamentals for gas are cited to be excellent (due to popularity of gas peakers to feed new demand), the continuing injections amd the chance our nations storage could fill by September is a growing possibility Could be a quite volatile sector with lots of surprises comming mad2 Of note, the last report I had (dated 7/23) cited a increase of 69bcf raising gas to 2,422bcf in storage from 2,353Bcf. The five year average for this time of year is 2,056Bcf and we are 366Bcf above that. I recollect that storage capacity in the USA for gas is around 2,900Bcf mad2