Annual

Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. nearly doubled its earnings in the fourth quarter, while its annual income soared on higher commodity prices, strategic acquisitions and strong production growth in North America and Trinidad.

California’s topsy-turvy fiscal and political climate this summer, with a $38 billion annual budget deficit still waiting to be patched over, does not immediately impact the standing of the state’s former wholesale net-short power buyer, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), but it could longer term, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said Monday in a terse credit report.

The Washington Ranch Storage facility will be down for annual Department of Transportation inspections and other maintenance Aug. 4-8, El Paso said. There will be no injections or withdrawals during the outage, which El Paso said will deprive it of a large degree of operational flexibility. This makes it critical that all shippers manage their volumes carefully to balance receipts and deliveries daily, the pipeline said. It added that Line 7100 from Washington Ranch to the South Mainline will be pigged Aug. 19-20, requiring withdrawals from Washington Ranch.

El Paso said that coincidentally with its June 24-28 annual maintenance shutdown of the Keystone Station, another unspecified pipeline that serves the same area experienced an unscheduled outage and “the combined effect on the Permian area has caused large volumes of gas to be shut in.” To help alleviate the situation, El Paso is forgoing some of the planned work at Keystone in order to return it to service ahead of schedule. The “A” plant became available Wednesday afternoon, and capacity through Keystone was raised to 600 MMcf/d effective with Thursday’s Cycle 2 nominations. Keystone’s “B” plant, which normally pumps gas south to the Waha Area, will not be available until Cycle 1 on Saturday. See the bulletin board for further details.

What’s an El Paso Corp. shareholder to do? With the annual shareholder meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. CST Tuesday in Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, the incumbent board of directors will know in less than 48 hours whether they will remain in control of the massive energy services corporation or whether they will be replaced by a tenacious group of energy professionals.

With the annual shareholder meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. CST Tuesday in Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, El Paso Corp.’s incumbent board of directors will know then whether they will remain in control of the massive energy services corporation or whether they will be replaced by a tenacious group of energy professionals.

Calling it one of the most important annual meetings that the company has had in its history, Aquila CEO Richard Green Jr. started out by offering an apology to shareholders for the company’s poor performance. Over the past few years, Aquila shareholders have seen the stock price plummet over 90% and their dividends cut to the point of elimination.

Calling it one of the most important annual meetings that the company has had in its history, Aquila CEO Richard Green Jr. started out by offering an apology to shareholders for the company’s poor performance. Over the past few years, Aquila shareholders have seen the stock price plummet over 90% and their dividends cut to the point of elimination.

On the eve of its annual shareholder meeting Tuesday in Newport Beach, CA, Sempra Energy’s General Counsel John Light announced he is retiring effective June 30 as the executive vice president/general counsel for the San Diego-based utility holding company. Light, 62, was a long-time partner in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins for 31 years before accepting the general counsel’s position at the newly formed Sempra Energy in mid-1998. He plans to return to Latham & Watkins’s LA office. Light directed the legal affairs of the newly merged holding companies, Pacific Enterprises and Enova for Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., respectively, and helped Sempra’s current diversified strategy that includes various merchant operations, in addition to two the state’s major private-sector utilities. Sempra CEO Stephen Baum said Light’s role was “integral in Sempra’s growth and success.”