A recent ruling has provided hope for troubled energy merchants the US. Thebankruptcy court for the northern district of Texas in Fort Worth granted energymerchant Mirant $500 million in debtor-in-possession financing in October. Thecompany had asked the court to approve the financing, which will be providedthrough a loan from General Electric Capital Corp, to supplement its availablecash to fund its merchant trading operations.

Mirant, which filed for bankruptcy on July 14, said that if it