Announcement

The Bush administration’s announcement that it negotiated new deals with five major producers remedying the flawed 1998 and 1999 Gulf of Mexico leases was not enough to allay the concerns of House lawmakers (see Daily GPI, Dec. 15).

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) on Friday moved into the interstate natural gas pipeline business with its announcement to acquire Transwestern Pipeline. The series of transactions with GE Energy Financial Services and Southern Union Co. is valued at about $1.47 billion.

Following an announcement by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) Monday that Lease Sale 200 off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana will proceed as scheduled on Aug. 16, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco pledged to take immediate action to block the proposed sale in court.

Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald’s office has confirmed the premier will make an announcement Friday about the redevelopment of the Deep Panuke natural gas project, which is located offshore about 155 miles southeast of Halifax. The project, put on hold three years ago by EnCana Corp. (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18, 2003), originally was estimated to hold 1 Tcf of gas and was expected to produce 400 MMcf/d.

Although there was no public announcement, the Long Beach, CA Port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners in closed session June 5 decided to let expire an ongoing exclusive rights agreement with the proposed developer of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the harbor. The five-member board said it would await the final environmental impact report (EIR) on the project before taking any further action.

Last week’s announcement by Chesapeake Energy Corp. that it would pay multiple sellers a combined $932 million for 67,000 net acres of Barnett Shale leasehold turned up the heat on the hottest gas play in the country. Consolidation has clearly come to the 13-county area around Fort Worth, where costs have skyrocketed to as much as $5,000/acre from just $50 two years ago. But the players keep coming because in the Barnett you make your money through the drillbit, and even a high ticket price can be dwarfed by future profits.

The Canaport LNG project in Saint John’s, NB, continues to move forward with an announcement Wednesday that project sponsors Repsol YPF and Irving Oil awarded the onshore and offshore engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts and issued the final notice to proceed with construction.

The devolution of Calpine Corp. continues, most recently with the exit of Bear Stearns from CalBear Energy LP and the announcement that Calpine will sell 20 power plants and cut 775 jobs.

Maryland electricity customers may be turning off their lights and lowering their air conditioning this summer following an announcement by the Public Service Commission of Maryland (PSC) last week that some electric bills could jump by as much as 72% due in part to increased fuel prices, which has hiked the costs to utilities of buying electricity for retail distribution.