The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a stipulation Tuesday to resolve issues with natural gas marketer Energy America LLC regarding improper disconnections of customers’ natural gas service (see Daily GPI, Jan. 6). The disconnections resulted from the company’s failure to properly credit payments from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to at least 54 customers’ accounts. The terms of the stipulation require the company to pay $54,000 into the state administered LIHEAP fund and to pay a $125 credit to each customer who was wrongly disconnected. In addition, the company must also pay each customer $5 for each day they were disconnected. The total amount of these payments is $60,750. However, if the commission identifies additional Energy America customers who were disconnected in error, the stipulation requires the company to make an additional $1,000 payment to LIHEAP for each additional customer.

Peoples Energy said its oil and gas production subsidiary has acquired some oil and gas properties in the Corpus Christi, TX area from a group of private entities for approximately $35 million. Peoples Energy Production acquired the reserves, which are 88% natural gas. They add approximately 5 MMcfe/d of net production to the company’s overall production base. The acquired properties are located in close proximity or adjacent to existing holdings and will be operated by the company. CEO Thomas M. Patrick said the acquisition will give the small producer “numerous drilling and production enhancement projects that add to our growing inventory of opportunities in the area.” Peoples Energy, headquartered in Chicago, has five primary business units: Gas Distribution, Power Generation, Midstream Services, Retail Energy Services and Oil and Gas Production.

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