Briefs

The Supreme Court last Tuesday rejected a petition for writ ofcertiorari filed by the California Public Utilities Commission(CPUC) and Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) after the partiesfailed to meet the deadline. The petitioners, which filed forreview on Nov. 5, missed the deadline by three days. The CPUC andSoCalGas had asked the high court to review a 1996 FERC decision -upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals two years later – thatthey claimed amounted to a “power grab” of California’sjurisdiction by the federal agency.

Williams completed its Cherokee expansion project, increasingcapacity on the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) system by87 MMDth/d to provide additional firm transportation capacity toserve markets in Georgia. The $68 million project consisted ofadding looping and compression.

Leviathan Gas Pipeline Partners subsidiary Flextrend DevelopmentCo. bought a 100% working interest in the Sunday Silence field fromTatham Offshore Development, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DeepTechInternational, which was recently acquired by El Paso Energy. Thefield is contained within four blocks in the Ewing Bank area of theGulf of Mexico in about 1,500 feet of water. Flextrend has begundrilling of a new delineation well, the third to be drilled in thefield. Sunday Silence was discovered in July 1994, and its firstdelineation well was flow tested in September 1994 at a sustainedproduction rate of 8,700 barrels/d of oil and 5.4 MMcf/d of gas.Sunday Silence has received a royalty abatement from the MineralsManagement Service for its first 52.5 million Boe. ElÿPaso Energy,general partner of Leviathan, said the company plans to sell aportion of the field to a development partner as it is not thecompany’s custom to hold a large shares in single E&ampP ventures.

Seagull Energy’s board has elected James T. Hackett as its newpresident and CEO, and its future chairman. Hackett, 44, has beenpresident of Duke’s Energy Services Division. Prior to that he wasexecutive vice president of PanEnergy. He will succeed Barry J.Galt, who has been chairman and CEO since 1983. Galt will continueto serve as chairman for the remainder of the year before beingelected vice chairman, at which time Hackett will assume theadditional position of chairman. Hackett said he looks forward tothe opportunity. Seagull “has a good management team, a solidbalance sheet and a strong collection of domestic and internationalassets.” Hackett has held a variety of positions in finance,marketing and engineering in the exploration and production andmidstream sectors of the industry for Amoco, Burlington Resourcesand NGC Corp. (now Dynegy). Subsequently, Seagull announced John W.Elias resigned as executive vice president and a director. Elias,who joined Seagull in 1993, supervised the company’s domestic andinternational oil and gas operations.

PG&E Corp. has selected Joseph P. Kearney, currently seniorvice president of PG&E Corp. and president and CEO of its U.S.Generating Company (USGen), to assume the additional responsibilityof president and CEO of PG&E Gas Transmission. Kearney, 52,succeeds Jack F. Jenkins-Stark who is leaving the company to pursueother interests.

Consolidated Edison announced it plans to sell two-thirds (5,500MW) of its New York City electric generation plants in an auctionstarting this summer. Its plants will be divided into threebundles. Each bundle will include a major generating facility-theRavenswood Generating Station in Long Island City, the AstoriaGenerating Station in Astoria, or the Arthur Kill Station on StatenIsland-and gas turbine generating facilities in Queens andBrooklyn. The company plans to sell two of the bundles throughauction and retain the remaining bundle, which has not yet beenidentified. It expects to receive authorization from the New YorkState Public Service Commission (PSC) by July 1. The auctionprocess would begin later that month, with the winning bidders tobe announced in January 1999.

ONEOK Resources has signed a definitive agreement with OXY USAto purchase some of its natural gas and oil reserves including morethan 400 wells in Oklahoma and Kansas outside the Hugoton field forapproximately $135 million before adjustments. Net production isapproximately 30 MMcf/d and 400 b/d. The properties havelower-risk development potential for increased reserves. WhileONEOK’s previous reserve acquisitions have been concentrated inOklahoma, this purchase includes significant reserves in Kansaswhere ONEOK recently acquired Kansas Gas Service, an LDC servingtwo-thirds of the state. David Kyle, president and chief operatingofficer of ONEOK, Inc., said the acquisition will almost doubleONEOK’s oil and gas reserve base. The acquisition includes a gassweetening plant located in the Aledo Field in Oklahoma.

Sonat Energy Services purchased a 50-percent limited partnershipinterest in GPU International’s Mid-Georgia Cogen L.P. power plant.”Our experience in both natural gas and power marketing has shownus that investing in state-of-the-art natural gas-fired electricpower generation is a key ingredient to providing our customerswith the services they need in today’s competitive market,” saidSonat Energy Service s President Richard Bates. The 300 MWcogeneration power plant is a dispatchable natural gas-fired,combined cycle facility located in Kathleen, GA. It is scheduled toenter commercial operation in the second quarter of 1998. Inaddition to providing thermal energy to a Frito-Lay snack foodprocessing plant and electrical capacity to Georgia Power, thefacility also will be available to sell wholesale energy to avariety of customers. Mid-Georgia Cogen is the first independentpower project developed in Georgia.

Rebecca McDonald, president and CEO of Amoco Energy Development,was named the 1998-1999 chairman of the Natural Gas SupplyAssociation last week. J. Larry Nichols, president of Devon EnergyCorp., was selected as vice chairman; Richard J. Sharples, vicepresident of marketing for Anadarko Petroleum, was madesecretary/treasurer.