Become

In its quest to become the first nationally branded utility inthe United States, TNPC Inc. — an alliance of Enron Corp.,America Online and IBM — said yesterday that its initial publicoffering of 24 million common shares at $21 per share would net thecompany nearly $473 million to intensify its retail marketingefforts and build a customer base.

Internet-based electricity and natural gas provider SmartEnergyannounced that it has entered an agreement to become a featuredmerchant on Yahoo! Shopping, marking the first residential energyservice provider on the e-commerce provider. Yahoo! Shopping willnow give customers in deregulated energy markets a choice in thepurchase of electricity and gas.

Recognizing that energy consumers are likely to experience priceshocks for natural gas, electricity and heating oil this winter,Senate and House lawmakers last week began calling on Congress andthe Clinton administration to work cooperatively to open up morepublic lands to exploration and drilling, provide tax incentivesfor producers (especially marginal well operators) and to consideroptions that would make a broader mix of fuels (other than naturalgas) attractive to the electric generation market.

BP yesterday said it has found the largest gas field to dateoffshore Trinidad and Tobago, which has become a major source ofliquefied natural gas for the U.S. market. BP’s initial well on theRed Mango field, located 35 miles east of Galeota Point, indicated3 Tcf of gas reserves and about 90 million bbl of condensate. It’sBP’s second major gas find in the area this year. The company saidit would shortly begin appraisal work to define the exact size ofthe find.

NGPL said it is completing all work on the offshore Texas HighIsland Block 71 Lateral and the line will become available for serviceagain today. A leak was discovered Aug. 16 and about 50 MMcf/d ofproduction from three receipt points was scheduled to zero effectiveAug. 18 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 23). NGPLwill begin scheduling gas for the High Island 71 (Torch) and HighIsland 116 (Vasgas) wells today. However, the High Island 139 (Sonat)well has been disconnected and is under evaluation at this time, sountil further notice the pipeline will not schedule gas there.

Georgia regulators have become bitter following the thirdsettlement of a slamming case involving a retail gas marketer andthe second retail marketer bankruptcy. Simmering tempers havereached the boiling point with some public service commissionersconcluding the deregulation process has been a total failure.Others remain hopeful that the many lessons learned in the processwill help the PSC proceed with electric deregulation when itbecomes the next order of business.

Baker Hughes announced that Michael E. Wiley, 49, will becomeits chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officeron Aug. 14. The appointment concludes the company’s search for anew chief executive, which began in February. Wiley was presidentand chief operating officer of Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)until completion of its sale to BP Amoco in May. Previously, heserved as CEO of Vastar Resources.

El Dorado, AR is about to become much bigger and brighter on themap. Dallas-based Panda Energy International has moved one stepcloser in the process of creating what will be the largest naturalgas-fired power plant in the country. Panda announced that it hassecured transportation to meet the plant’s daily natural gas needs.

El Dorado, AR is about to become much bigger and brighter on themap. Dallas-based Panda Energy International has moved one stepcloser in the process of creating what will be the largest naturalgas-fired power plant in the country. Panda announced that it hassecured transportation to meet the plant’s daily natural gas needs.