Books

Former Enron Corp. CFO Andrew Fastow has been the object of “unprecedented public humiliation” on television, in Congressional hearings, in books, magazines, the Internet and in “written and verbal insults and threats,” and he is requesting leniency when he is sentenced to federal prison next week.

Despite a host of energy market manipulation cases already on the books, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is still finding more work to do in that area. The agency filed a civil enforcement action Wednesday against BP Products North America for allegedly cornering the propane market in February 2004 to drive up prices. BP has denied the charges, saying that “legitimate forces of supply and demand” were the cause of the price increases.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is negotiating with other senators on the Lease Sale 181 bill that was voted out by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in March, Frank Macchiarola, majority counsel for the Senate Energy Committee said Tuesday in a briefing to gas industry representatives in Washington, DC. He said he expects the legislation, which would allow drilling in a small portion of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, to be taken up for a floor vote soon but could not predict exactly when that would happen (see Daily GPI, May 12).

Just when you thought it was safe to close the books on the 2005 hurricane season and turn your attention towards the winter heating season, Tropical Storm Wilma, the record-tying twenty-first storm of the season has formed southeast of Grand Cayman. With Wilma’s path still very uncertain, the natural gas futures market spooked higher in Nymex’s Sunday Access session and then retained those gains through Monday’s regular session, ultimately settling at $13.887, 66.8 cents higher than last Friday’s close.

“Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive ever to strike the U.S.,” topping off a hurricane season that began as the most active on record, and a summer that will go into the record books as the tenth warmest, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday. Around the globe temperatures from June 1 through Aug. 31 were the second highest on record.

The energy history books will record 2003 as the year that some big energy companies — Williams Cos., El Paso Corp. and Dynegy Inc. — avoided the clutches of bankruptcy, said a leading energy analyst.

With its acquisitions of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. and Anderson Exploration on the books last year, Devon Energy Corp. scored record oil and natural gas production and revenues in 2002, and also could boast that it pumped up its oil, gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) reserve replacements by 278% at a low cost of $7.18/boe. This year, said management, will be no different.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week expunged from its books a 1968 policy statement that forced competition to take a backseat in offshore Louisiana. It did this by encouraging pipeline companies to coordinate offshore pipe projects to defray construction costs and ensure full utilization of gas transportation facilities, as well as to accelerate gas exploration and production.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has expunged from its books a 1968 policy statement that encouraged pipeline companies to build joint projects off the coast of Louisiana to defray construction costs and ensure full utilization of gas transportation facilities, as well as to accelerate gas exploration and production.