Carolyn

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and other House lawmakers have written a letter to the Interior Department citing ways for the agency to potentially improve its collection of royalties on oil and natural gas produced from federal and tribal lands.

In a victory for laid-off employees of bankrupt Enron Corp., U.S. Trustee Carolyn Schwartz informed attorneys for the Severed Enron Employees Coalition (SEEC) on Thursday that she will appoint an “official committee” to focus on their issues. The committee would have basically the same standing as the 15-member Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors set up to oversee Enron’s assets and debts, which could give the former workers a better chance of recovering benefits.

Unprecedented growth of nearly 339% last year in the gas andsteam turbine market was fueled by the rise in combined cycleconfigurations, a manufacturing method that has dramaticallyincreased efficiency in electricity production and becomeincreasingly popular with power plant producers, according to a newresearch report by Frost & Sullivan.

A deal reached last year that transferred all of Chevron’s oiland gas assets in Utah’s Uinta Basin to the newly formed ShenandoahEnergy (SEI) in exchange for an equity ownership interest is payingoff big time for the energy giant, said Chevron North AmericaPresident George L. Kirkland.

CanWest Gas Supply Inc., an old-line natural gas aggregator in British Columbia — and also the largest — has agreed to allow Atlanta’s Southern Company Energy Marketing to manage its business.

PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.’s newest venture, a web page withinits Internet site dedicated to leasing and farming out some of itsundeveloped oil and natural gas rights in Western Canada, launchedthis week with its first Call for Bids centered on four blocks onland that cover 69,000 acres in Alberta.

Construction is complete, and Transwestern Pipeline Co. hasincreased its available capacity to California by 15%, a moveproviding expansion shippers with opportunities to move incrementalvolumes from the San Juan and Permian Basins to the Californiaborder. The $12 million project was approved by FERC in mid-January(see NGI, Jan. 17, 2000).

An analysis of power marketing sales shows early signs ofconsolidation among power marketers, according to CarolynPengidore, managing director of energy risk management for ArthurAndersen. “I think we’re seeing wholesale changes in the wholesalemarket,” she told the Gas Mart/Power ’98 audience. “The fourthquarter brought a reshuffling among industry leaders based on salesvolume. I’ve called this a race because the leaders have changed ina single quarter,” said Pengidore.