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Hotel Booking The stocks of several large energy companies fell sharply yesterday as the industry was buffeted by fresh doubts about the continued viability of electricity trading as a major component of its business.

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Travel Agency Shares of the Williams Companies, the natural gas and electricity concern, fell 23 percent amid investor nervousness about accusations made by a former employee that the company tried to manipulate natural gas prices in California two years ago. The employee, Jones Murphy, and others raised questions about Williams' accounting and risk-management practices in an article in The New York Times on Sunday.

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Cheap Hotel Shares of Williams fell $3.25, to $10.95, their lowest level in seven years.

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Flight Booking The market was further roiled by news of the apparent suicide of the treasurer of the El Paso Corporation, Charles Dana Rice, who was found dead on Sunday of a gunshot wound in his home in Houston, where El Paso is based. There was no immediate indication that Mr. Rice's death was related to his work at El Paso, and industry executives said Mr. Rice's health had been failing. But his death was reminiscent of the suicide in January of J. Clifford Baxter, a former vice chairman of Enron who shot himself near his Houston home.

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Travel Agent Shares of El Paso fell $3.70, or 14.4 percent, to $21.95.

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Hotel Chicago "This is a tragic event for our company," William A. Wise, El Paso's chairman and chief executive, told The Associated Press. "However, the market reaction is unwarranted."

Online Booking The plunge in the Williams share price was touched off in large part by comments by a spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis of California, who indicated that the state would request an investigation by federal authorities into the accusations that the company manipulated natural gas prices in California in December 2000.

Travel Health Insurance Executives at Williams, based in Tulsa, Okla., and some other industry leaders dismissed the notion that such manipulation was possible. "The idea that anyone could corner the natural gas market in California shows a complete lack of understanding of the number of players in and the complexity of that market," said Steve Malcolm, the chief executive of Williams.

Hotel Reservation The collapse of Enron and the continuous trickle of information about its energy-trading and accounting practices have fostered doubts among investors about the industry as a whole, particularly as revelations have emerged about similar practices among its rivals.

London Hotel Booking Credit-rating agencies have demanded that companies reduce their debt sharply. Some energy companies have sold assets to satisfy the agencies, while the credit ratings of others have crumbled as they determine what they might sell. Either way, the industry is struggling to shore up some important businesses at the cost of jettisoning others.

Discount Travel Over the last few weeks, El Paso and Aquila Inc. have announced plans to sharply scale back their trading operations. Over the same period, the chief executives of Dynegy, a major power trader, and CMS Energy as well as top executives at Reliant Resources have resigned after trading and accounting turmoil singed their companies.

Orlando Hotel Late last week, Moody's Investors Service issued a report that said that energy marketing and trading might not remain an investment-grade business unless it was overhauled. Also, energy industry executives told Dow Jones yesterday that in a recent meeting with officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency's chief accountant, Robert Herdman, told them that they inflated trading revenue and had too much leeway regarding how their contracts were valued.

Booking Agency A spokeswoman for the S.E.C. declined to comment on whether the meeting took place but said officials routinely met with industry executives.

International Travel Medical Williams was stung by the accusations about the California market, but in a conference call yesterday, its executives were called on by investors and analysts mainly to defend its trading business. "Unlike many of our peers, we do understand how the market works," said Andrew Sunderman, chief financial officer for Williams's energy marketing and trading unit. "We do take risk adjustments into account."

New York Hotel Investors and analysts asked Williams to explain how its traders were compensated and whether the system included an incentive to over-report profits from power contracts. Williams said strict controls were in place to prevent such opportunities. Investors also pressed Williams to explain how it determined the value of long-term contracts that effectively lacked any markets in which prices could be judged and compared. The company said it had a rigorous internal system to evaluate its economic modeling.

Online Travel Booking But some investors grumbled that Williams's answers did little to shed light on how the company managed risk and forecast the future price of power, upon which much of its earnings were based.

Travel Medical Insurance Fredric E. Russell, who owns a Tulsa investment fund that owns 117,000 Williams shares, said that while he did not think Williams was badly run, "by failing to speak directly in crystal-clear English, Williams is casting more doubt on its business."

Miami Hotel By Neela Banerjee
New York Times - 6/4/2002

Topic: Energy

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