2003

Calgary-based Endev Energy Inc. announced Friday that it has acquired five small private companies for C$11.5 million. The companies jointly own an interest in nine oil and gas producing properties located in Alberta.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has reintroduced a bipartisan bill intended to spur development of energy resources on Indian lands, where only a quarter of the oil and less than a fifth of the natural gas resources have been developed, according to the Department of the Interior.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has reintroduced a bipartisan bill intended to spur development of energy resources on Indian lands, where only a quarter of the oil and less than a fifth of the natural gas resources have been developed, according to the Department of the Interior.

The fatal explosion on one of the mainlines of El Paso Natural Gas in August 2000 was caused by significant thinning of the pipeline wall due to “severe internal corrosion,” the three-member National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded last Tuesday, citing the natural gas pipeline’s inadequate corrosion-control program and lax oversight by the federal Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) as contributing factors.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) told FERC that the muni and Duke Energy Trading and Marketing have reached a settlement resolving all outstanding issues stemming from a dispute over several power contracts entered into in 2001 between SMUD and the power supplier.

While the creditworthiness status of many energy companies is on life support due to the economic downturn in the industry and rash of scandals, the industry’s interest in using clearinghouses to jump-start sluggish trading appears to be lukewarm at this stage, said industry and clearinghouse representatives last week. More important are finishing the standardized market process and the western markets proceeding, giving some stable guidelines as to how business can be conducted, some believe.

The number of energy companies who have the financial and credit stability to carry out trading transactions on their own has plunged sharply since the collapse of Enron Corp. more than a year ago, causing more and more companies to look toward third-party clearing organizations to bear some of the risk and help restore confidence in the markets, said a Morgan Stanley executive Wednesday.

Consultants at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) are convinced that natural gas production in North America is poised to enter a long-term decline and that imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will have to make up the supply gap. But Tom Wood, gas production expert at the Energy Information Administration (EIA), isn’t buying it. Wood said the gas resource is still there, but producers simply have chosen to drill overseas in the short-term.

IDACORP Inc. revealed in a federal filing that it has received and will respond to a new request for information about natural gas prices that it has provided to unnamed industry publications. The company said, however, it did not engage in any illegal transactions and believes data it supplied to publications was bona fide. Federal officials did not disclose any other details of the investigation.