2004

Following a review of accounting statements between 1999 and 2003, El Paso Corp. on Tuesday affirmed that its financial statements likely will be restated to eliminate hedge accounting for some of its past natural gas transactions. The company already had indicted in late May that the downward revisions to its natural gas and oil reserves earlier this year would require financial restatements (see Daily GPI, June 1).

FERC last Monday approved separate settlements with subsidiaries of Dominion Resources Inc., Nicor Inc. and NiSource Inc., which require them to pay a total of $8.1 million in civil penalties and customer refunds to resolve charges that they provided preferential access to market-sensitive storage information in violation of the Commission’s standards of conduct.

The bankruptcy code and the Federal Power Act (FPA) bumped heads in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the bankruptcy code won in the Mirant/Pepco decision announced Wednesday. The courts will do the deciding as to whether bankrupt Mirant Corp. should be allowed to breach two power purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco), according to an Appeals Court three-judge panel which reversed and remanded the case to a lower court that had earlier deferred to FERC jurisdiction.

The bankruptcy code and the Federal Power Act bumped heads in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the bankruptcy code won in the Mirant/Pepco decision announced Wednesday. The courts will do the deciding as to whether bankrupt Mirant Corp. should be allowed to breach two power purchase agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco), according to an Appeals Court three-judge panel which reversed and remanded the case to a lower court that had earlier deferred to FERC jurisdiction.

With a new budget finally put in place over the weekend, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to turn his attention to energy issues this month, but his administration got off to a rocky start Monday with a news report quoting local government officials, environmental groups and consumer activists blasting the governor’s cabinet members for taking an 11-day trip with energy company executives to Australia and South Korea to visit liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

London-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group last week agreed to pay $151 million in fines to resolve investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and British regulators into the company’s oil and natural gas reserves miscalculations. However, an attorney representing two large shareholder groups that are suing the company over the reserves issue said the news was “disappointing.”

London-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group has agreed to pay $151 million in fines to resolve investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and British regulators into the company’s oil and natural gas reserves miscalculations.

Enron agreed to pay $35 million last week to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to settle charges that it, along with one of its natural gas traders, Hunter Shively, engaged in a scheme to manipulate the Henry Hub natural gas spot and futures markets on July 19, 2001. Shively also agreed to pay $300,000 to settle charges against him. The settlement also covers charges that Enron operated an illegal commodity futures exchange.

Frisco, TX-based Comstock Resources is contributing about 300 Bcfe of estimated proved Gulf of Mexico oil and gas reserves and about $102.7 million in related debt to newly created exploration and production venture Bois d’Arc Energy LLC for a 59.9% stake in the new company.