Santa Fe Snyder Corp. of Houston said last week that anexploration well in Howard County, TX,Sellers 119 #1, has beensuccessful, and will extend the company’s Lost Peak area there. Thewell targeted Cisco Canyon sandstones now being exploited in theSignal Peak field six miles northwest of the well. The Sellers wellencountered 115 of gross pay sand with productive gas shows over a200-foot interval. Santa Fe has 80,000 gross acres (60,000 net)under lease in the play, and through the end of this year, expectsto drill an additional 15 development and three exploratory wells.Santa Fe plans to develop the field on 160-acre spacing, withportions of the field on 80-acre spacing. Current plans for 2001call for drilling up to 50 wells there. Gross operated productionfrom the Signal Peak field is now 25 MMcf/d and 1,300 b/d of oil.Cost of finding and development for the area has averaged $.80 perMMcfe, with operating costs of $.30 per MMcfe.

Texaco announced commercial production from the Petroniusproject located in the Gulf of Mexico, 130 miles southeast of NewOrleans. Installation of the Petronius platform was completed inearly May. Texaco and its partner, Marathon, each have a 50%working interest and Texaco is operator. Petronius project, locatedin 1,754 feet of water in Viosca Knoll Block 786, began productionof oil and gas on July 9 at 8,700 b/d of oil and 6 MMcf/d of gasand will be increasing production through three other wells overthe next three months, leading to rates of 40,000 b/d of oil and 35MMcf/d of gas by October. Additional wells will be drilled andbrought on line through the remainder of 2000 and 2001, leading topeak production rates of 50,000 b/d of oil and 70 MMcf/d of gas.”Petronius is an important part of our growth plan for thedeepwater Gulf of Mexico, which is a focus area of our worldwideupstream strategy,” said Robert A. Solberg, president of TexacoWorldwide Upstream Commercial Development. “Texaco worked withMarathon and numerous contractors, most of which areLouisiana-based, to move this $500 million project on a fast-trackconstruction schedule, positioning Petronius to play an importantrole in helping us achieve our production growth targets.”

Elizabethtown Gas Company, the New Jersey division of NUI Corp.,filed a request with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities foran increase in its Gas Adjustment Clause (GAC) of $46.7 million, orapproximately an 18 percent overall increase in customers’ bills.The company said the increase “reflects the higher supply coststhat Elizabethtown Gas, like other natural gas utilities throughoutthe nation, is experiencing.” If the board approves the increase,the company’s GAC charge would rise from $12.36 per therm to $26.65a therm. The average non-heating residential customer would pay$3.57 more on a 25 therm gas bill. For a typical residentialheating customer, the average monthly bill would rise $14.29 for100 therms. Elizabethtown Gas has requested the increase to takeeffect on Oct. 1.

A Baltimore City circuit court granted a two-week stay ofBaltimore Gas and Electric’s (BG&E) customer-choice plan forelectric customers in central Maryland. This is “a temporarysetback for 1.1 million [BG&E} customers,” said Christian H.Poindexter, chairman and CEO of Constellation Energy Group,BG&E’s parent. “While we are disappointed that an interim stayhas been put into effect for two weeks,” he noted, “we areencouraged that Judge [Albert J.] Matricciani did so in such alimited fashion.” The stay was sought by the Mid-Atlantic PowerSupply Association, a New Jersey-based group representingout-of-state retail marketers. The association is challenging theMaryland’s Public Service Commissions November 1998 settlementorder that outlined how customer choice is to be implemented inMaryland. The case was remanded to the Baltimore circuit courtafter an appellate courtrescinded a prior stay last week.

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