2002

Conoco Canada, the Alberta Provincial Crown and the Surmont Producer Group (SPG) have reached an agreement to continue shutting in 146 natural gas wells that were closed two years ago to preserve the production integrity of Conoco’s proposed Surmont oil sands project. The wells, owned by Calpine Canada, Paramount, Devon Canada, Rio Alto Exploration, NAL Resources, Canada Forest Oil and Great Grosmont Petroleum, will be shut in through 2013 to allow Conoco Canada to recover a large bituminous oil sands reserve near Fort McMurray, AL.

FirstEnergy filed a preliminary report last week with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, identifying possible causes for the major corrosion it first reported on March 13 that it had found during a regular inspection of the pressurized water nuclear reactor head at the Davis-Besse unit in Ohio. About 40 pounds of carbon steel was found to have been eaten away, leaving 3/8 inch of stainless steel covering the reactor head at the bottom of the corrosion cavity, creating a potential safety hazard.

The “root cause” of problems stemming from decremental bids for imbalance energy in California’s energy market is poor market design, FERC Commissioner William Massey said last Wednesday. At the Commission’s latest agenda meeting, he urged the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to tackle the decremental bid issue in a comprehensive market redesign proposal, which the grid operator has to file this spring at FERC.

FERC last Wednesday ruled that San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) can roll into its rates the costs associated with two proposed transmission upgrades that the utility has said will allow for significant levels of new generation to serve load in the western part of the country.

The long-term adequacy of California’s natural gas transmission pipeline and storage system will be driven by the timing and location of new gas-fired electric generation throughout the western states, and the points of view of the analysts making the assessments as demonstrated Tuesday by state and utility gas experts speaking at the three-day GasMart/Power conference in Reno, NV. The experts think there will be growing overcapacity in the California gas system, but the key questions will be how much and who pays for it?

Enron? Enron who? That may well be the response by the leaders in NGI ‘s quarterly ranking of North American gas marketers after the former market leader, which had led the rankings since 1997, was displaced by companies that have traditionally done well but never grabbed the brass ring in gas sales. Mirant, which last year bought TransCanada — another top 20 contender in year-end rankings — pulled to the top of the list in the final quarter of 2001, with a near-111% jump in sales, followed closely by Aquila, which saw its sales increase 35%.

Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Corp. told state regulators Thursday that it’s still interested in buying Portland General Electric, which bankruptcy-mired Enron Corp. still wants to sell. The gas utility made these points in a strongly worded response to questions raised in the ongoing state regulatory proceedings by large industrial customers who recently recommended the state proceedings be suspended, pending more clarity from Enron’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in a New York federal court.

Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Corp. told state regulators Thursday that it’s still interested in buying Portland General Electric, which bankruptcy-mired Enron Corp. still wants to sell. The gas utility made these points in a strongly worded response to questions raised in the ongoing state regulatory proceedings by large industrial customers who recently recommended the state proceedings be suspended, pending more clarity from Enron’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in a New York federal court.

The Senate set aside a controversial amendment Tuesday that seeks to re-regulate the trading of over-the-counter (OTC) energy derivatives after opposing sides failed to reach an off-the-floor compromise to allow the proposal to come up for a vote.