Cites

El Paso Corp. is making “very good progress” in moving toward a settlement of allegations that it withheld transportation capacity from the California market to ratchet up prices for natural gas during the energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, said the company’s new chairman, Ronald L. Kuehn Jr.

With the state’s deregulated marketplace just one year old, retail electric provider (REP) Texas Commercial Energy (TCE) on Thursday filed for Chapter 11 protection. The company claimed that “significantly higher volatility and uncertainty in the Texas wholesale power supply market” since the beginning of 2003 made it “necessary” to protect its estimated 1,500 customers.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) last week called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin a federal investigation into the causes for the recent spike in natural gas prices across the nation and particularly in his home state of South Dakota.

The probable cause of the fatal explosion on one of the mainlines of El Paso Natural Gas in August 2000 was “severe internal corrosion” of the line, the three-member National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded Tuesday, citing the pipeline’s inadequate corrosion-control program and lax oversight by the federal Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS).

Unocal Corp. has revised downward its fourth quarter earnings forecast, citing lower crude oil and natural gas prices, increased environmental remediation costs, and expenses resulting from its acquisition of Pure Resources Inc. late last year.

Unocal Corp. on Thursday revised downward its fourth quarter earnings forecast, citing lower crude oil and natural gas prices, increased environmental remediation costs, and expenses resulting from its acquisition of Pure Resources Inc.

TXU Corp., which so far had remained unscathed in either rumor, innuendo or loss of investor confidence, saw the lights dim Friday after drastically revising downward its earnings forecasts through 2003. By midday, credit ratings agencies were re-evaluating the company’s operations, and investors were selling off their stocks in record numbers.

TXU Corp., which so far had remained unscathed in either rumor, innuendo or loss of investor confidence, saw the lights dim Friday after drastically revising downward its earnings forecasts through 2003. By midday, credit ratings agencies were re-evaluating the company’s operations, and investors were selling off their stocks in record numbers.

Due to a sharp drop in natural gas prices, earnings for U.S. independent oil and gas producers fell 57% in the second quarter from the year-earlier period, and were down a colossal 75% for the first six months, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.