Around

Tennessee anticipates completing repairs of a rupture nearHebron Center in northern Pennsylvania around 9 p.m. EST Wednesdayand will accept Cycle 2 nomination increases then if the repairsare finished. Sunday morning’s rupture on the 300 Line is causingrestrictions through Secondary services downstream of Main LineValve 314.

Canadian natural gas exporters have wasted no time in takingadvantage of their new power to shop around for markets as a resultof expanded pipelines.

Canadian natural gas exporters have wasted no time in takingadvantage of their new power to shop around for markets as a resultof expanded pipelines.

After holding back for 14 years, TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. isjumping into door-to-door retail sales competition – and on a scaleto match its stature as the nation’s biggest natural gastransporter and trader. TransCanada announced last week it isteaming up with department store retailer Sears Canada to make astart on a national campaign by initially selling gas toresidential consumers in Ottawa. The move by wholly-ownedsubsidiary TransCanada Energy out-classed on-going retailoperations such as Suncor Inc.’s Sunoco service station chain inOntario or pioneering efforts in central Canada by Direct EnergyMarketing of Calgary.

Southern Company Energy Marketing’s new president, GaryMorsches, shifted some personnel around yesterday to optimizeperformance. John Ragan, formerly west regional vice president,becomes east regional vice president. He also will oversee SCEM’scommodities group, which handles trading in coal, emissionscredits, weather derivatives and pulp/paper markets. Bill Orr,formerly northeast regional vice president, becomes west regionalvice president. Jay Catasein, project development vice president,becomes northeast regional vice president. Ron Erd is promoted fromdirector to vice president of market development. In addition toresponsibility for market development and structuring, Erd willassume responsibility for the project development group. SCEM is ajoint venture between Southern Energy Inc. and Vastar ResourcesInc.

With retail energy competition around the corner and powergeneration growing by leaps and bounds, Colorado is in need of newgas storage capacity, according to Brandt Energy President MichaelG. Wright.

While for a third consecutive year U.S. gas reserves stood flatat around 107 Tcf, Canadian reserves grew 8% to 32.2 Tcf in 1998,according to Arthur Andersen. That’s just one finding of theconsultant’s 1999 edition of Global E&P Trends, released lastweek.

While for a third consecutive year U.S. gas reserves stood flatat around 107 Tcf, Canadian reserves grew 8% to 32.2 Tcf in 1998,according to Arthur Andersen. That’s just one finding of theconsultant’s 1999 edition of Global E&P Trends, releasedyesterday.

The performance of Dynegy’s gas liquids business during thesecond quarter indicates the market is finally making aturn-around. Operating income from the liquids division grew 41% to$54.9 million, Dynegy reported. Its power marketing and generationdivision, including operating margin and equity earnings from jointventure power projects, also showed continued improvement with 28%growth in operating income to $56.8 million. But gas marketingsuffered a 31% decline in operating income to $21.8 millionprimarily because of “weak market conditions” in Europe, thecompany said. Dynegy posted a 19% increase in net income during thesecond quarter to $28 million compared with $23.4 million in 2Q98.It sold a total of 9.2 Bcf/d of gas (6.1 Bcf/d domestically), upfrom 8.2 Bcf/d in 2Q98, and sold 17.4 million MWh of power, down40% from the 28.9 million MWh sold in 2Q98. Dynegy also showed ahigh retail marketing loss of $2.4 million compared with $600,000in 2Q98 because of the expansion of its SouthStar retail marketingalliance with AGL Resources and Piedmont Natural Gas in Georgia.SouthStar markets gas under the name Georgia Natural Gas and hasbuilt one of the largest market shares in Georgia. Dynegyattributed the mounting losses to increased advertising inpreparation for the Oct. 1 deadline for retail customers to switchto buying gas from marketers.