Balance

Devon Energy Corp.’s net earnings climbed 34% in 2005, earnings per share were up more than 40%, and cash balance reached a record, making last year the best in the Oklahoma City-based producer’s history. Devon also added 439 million boe of proved reserves through drilling and performance revisions, nearly doubling its 2005 output of 226 million boe, with Barnett Shale assets driving the results.

As a sign of some stabilization of a declining Jackson Prairie storage account balance, Northwest revised its Unauthorized Overrun Entitlement (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9) from a Stage I (at 3% imbalance tolerance) to a Stage III (13%) until further notice Monday. The entitlement affects all Receiving Party customers north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station. “To avoid penalties and a potential OFO through the Green River and Kemmerer Compressor Stations, Northwest requests your immediate cooperation and assistance to stay within your scheduled volumes by bringing on additional supplies north of Kemmerer,” the pipeline told customers, adding that it appreciated their quick response to its request to pay back imbalances owed to Northwest north of Kemmerer this past week. Customers who still owe gas to Northwest north of Kemmerer were encouraged to make payback arrangements as soon as possible. A suspension of Northwest deliveries to a CIG interconnect due to a line rupture late last week about 22 miles south of the Green River Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9) remained in effect Monday with no prognosis for restoration of service provided.

ConocoPhillips said it expects its first quarter production to be flat with levels in the fourth quarter of 2004, but production for the year is expected to rise 3% compared to 2004 levels, excluding its 11.3% investment in Lukoil.

After spending the past two years shedding assets to shore up its balance sheet, Dynegy Inc. on Tuesday announced it is buying Sithe Energies and Sithe Independence LP from Exelon Corp., which includes a 1,042 MW combined-cycle power generation facility near Scriba, NY, four natural gas-fired merchant facilities in New York and four hydroelectric generation facilities in Pennsylvania.

Some analysts and company executives have questioned whether an energy trading operation is good for the balance sheets of prospective and current importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in North America, but San Diego-based Sempra Energy, a leading proponent of trading and a major LNG player, was unabashedly supportive of its trading unit Tuesday at the Merrill Lynch “Global Power & Gas Leaders Conference.”

Some analysts and company executives have questioned whether an energy trading operation is good for the balance sheets of prospective and current importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in North America, but San Diego-based Sempra Energy, a leading proponent of trading and a major LNG player, was unabashedly supportive of its trading unit Tuesday at the Merrill Lynch “Global Power & Gas Leaders Conference.”

Southern Union Co. has revealed itself as the “stalking horse” for Enron Corp.’s natural gas pipeline assets, announcing it would pay $2.3 billion, topping an offer by Oscar Wyatt Jr.’s company by $55 million. Creditors are expected to ask the bankruptcy court to set a new auction for August, with the Southern Union bid as the benchmark.

El Paso Corp. said Friday that it eliminated about $815 million of non-recource debt on its balance sheet by closing the sale of Utility Contract Funding (UCF) to Bear Stearns’ Houston Energy Group for $21 million. UCF assets include a power contract that was restructured as part of the company’s previous power restructuring activities. El Paso said it will take a pre-tax charge of $100 million on the sale based on the company’s investment in the equity of this entity.

As the broad energy bill (HR 6) hangs in the balance in the Senate, representatives of the struggling steel, agriculture and paper industries told a House subcommittee last week that they need fast relief from high natural gas prices. Assurances of lower prices 10 or more years down the road, when liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and Alaska gas are projected to play a bigger role in the U.S. supply mix, don’t help them now, they said.