Search this site
Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
2008 Weekly local football review
(Previous weekly reviews from the 2004-2007 seasons are here). Rice 56 SMU 27 As noted earlier here, I think the Owls (1-0/1-0 CUSA) are a good bet to surprise this season. They have an excellent and experienced QB in...
The latest natural gas trader case
This Tom Fowler/Chronicle article (also see later report here) reports on the beginning of the latest in the series of criminal trials nicknamed "the trader cases" among the Houston defense bar involving Houston-based natural gas traders who allegedly manipulated natural...
2007 Weekly local football review
(AP Photo/Dave Einsel; previous weekly reviews here) Titans 38 Texans 36 The local mainstream media view of the Texans (3-4) -- most recently reflected by Richard Justice's Sunday column of yesterday (see also this earlier column) -- is that the...
El Paso's rebound
Just a year of so ago, Houston-based El Paso Corp. looked as if it was a prime candidate to be the city's next big corporate reorganization. That's not the case anymore. Earlier this week, El Paso announced that it had...
Guilty plea in another gas trader reporting case
Donald Burwell, a former El Paso Corp. energy trader, pled guilty under a cooperation agreement with the Justice Department to federal charges Tuesday that he falsely reported natural gas trading data to a natural gas industry publication. Burwell faces a...
Why John Lopez is wrong about the bowl system
As you sit back today to watch any number of the six college bowl games, you might come across Chronicle sportswriter John Lopez's column from yesterday in which he characterizes this past Saturday's EV1.net Houston Bowl as the "Apathy Bowl"...
Oscar Wyatt indicted in Oil-for-Food scandal
Colorful Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt -- who was once described as a businessman who would not be afraid of dealing with the Devil himself -- was arrested yesterday morning in Houston and charged in New York with bribing Iraqi officials...
Prosecution increases the stakes in another trader case
The Justice Department announced Thursday that it has filed a superseding indictment alleging additional counts of wire fraud and reporting fake trades against former El Paso Corp. trader Donald Burwell. The superseding indictment is the latest development in a series...
A mixed bag for El Paso Corp.
Under any reasonable assessment, Houston-based El Paso Corporation has had a rough past year, as noted here, here, here, here and here. Accordingly, it was with some relief in local business circles that the natural gas production and pipeline company...
Baker Hughes gets caught in Oil for Food scandal net
Houston-based oil services giant Baker Hughes Inc. announced Thursday that it has received a federal grand jury subpoena and a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide information regarding its participation in the United Nations' oil-for-food program. Here...
More gas trader indictments
U.S. prosecutors charged five former natural gas traders for allegedly supplying fake trade data to publishers that produce indexes used to value natural gas contracts. This post and this post refer to earlier indictments of the same nature against other...
Iraq Oil-for-Food Probe hits Houston
This New York Times article reports that federal investigators are focusing on four American oil companies and three U.S. citizens with Houston connections who allegedly received vouchers for oil from Saddam Hussein as he sought to flout United Nations sanctions....
Former El Paso traders cop pleas
Following on this earlier post on the subject, four former Houston-based El Paso Corp. natural gas traders have agreed to plead guillty under cooperation agreements with the Justice Department after being been charged with making false reports used to calculate...
El Paso finally files 10-K
As expected, Houston-based El Paso Corp. disclosed a huge loss for 2003 and restated previous financial results in a delayed Form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. El Paso posted a full-year 2003 loss of $1.93 billion, or...
Charlie Beckham named chairman of the State Bar Bankruptcy Law Section
Charles A. ("Charlie") Beckham Jr., a partner with Haynes and Boone LLP in Houston, has been elected as chair of the bankruptcy law section for the State Bar of Texas for a term running through June 2006. Deborah D. Williamson,...
El Paso previews huge earnings restatement
Houston-based El Paso Corp. released some preliminary 2004 financial numbers and previewed its restatement of financial results from 1999 to 2003 following a review of its accounting for natural-gas hedges. El Paso previously announced plans to restate results because of...
Former El Paso traders targets of criminal probe
About a dozen former El Paso Corp. traders and their supervisors have been notified they are targets of a grand jury investigation into natural gas price manipulation. The former employees received target letters from the United States Attorney's office in...
El Paso announces restatement of earnings from 1999-2003
Houston-based El Paso Corp. announced today that an internal review of its accounting has prompted the company to restate quarterly earnings from 1999 to 2003. El Paso noted in its announcement that stockholders' equity would be reduced by the move,...
Oscar Wyatt makes big Enron asset play
This NY Times article reports on Enron Corp.'s announcement today that, subject to Bankruptcy Court approval, it has agreed to sell for $1.8 billion its most valuable remaining pipeline assets to a company run by colorful Houston billionaire Oscar Wyatt,...
CFTC investigating natural gas storage numbers
This Chronicle article reports that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has subpoenaed information from several energy companies -- including Duke Energy Corp., El Paso Corp., CenterPoint Energy Inc. and Oneok Inc. -- to determine more information about how storage data...
El Paso issues independent report on reserve overstatement
This Chronicle article reports that an independent law firm report on El Paso Corp's restatement of reserves earlier this year concludes that El Paso employees provided estimates of proven oil and gas reserves that "they knew or should have known...
SEC bears down on El Paso
Things have not been going well lately for Houston-based El Paso Corp., as noted earlier here, here and here. Accordingly, yesterday's announcement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into El Paso's downward restatement in natural...
El Paso jitters
As noted in earlier posts here and here, things have not been going well recently for El Paso Corp. Now, the company is making the rounds with its banks. Not a good sign....
El Paso preparing to restate earnings
In light of this earlier disclosure, this announcement by El Paso Corporation yesterday is no surprise....
El Paso writes down reserves
Houston based El Paso Corporation disclosed that it is reducing the value of its estimated proven reserve base of its oil and gas properties by 41%. Proven reserves represent what an oil and gas company can reasonably expect to produce...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries matching 'El Paso Corp'. [What is this?]
