Coast

The industry’s oil and gas exploration and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico and probably in some Gulf Coast state waters have been temporarily shut down because of Tropical Storm Isidore’s broad reach, strong winds, heavy rains and high seas, according to reports from the Minerals Management Service and production companies on Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Fay, simmering off the Texas and Louisiana coasts Friday, remained stationary and appeared to be organizing slightly, and a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning remained in effect from Intracoastal City, LA to Port Aransas, TX late Friday.

Tropical Storm Fay, simmering off the Texas and Louisiana coasts Friday, remained stationary and appeared to be organizing slightly, and a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning remained in effect from Intracoastal City, LA to Port Aransas, TX late Friday.

Enron Corp.’s relationships with El Paso Electric, Avista Corp. and affiliate Portland General Electric were so cozy that it was impossible at times to distinguish who was calling the shots at the companies’ energy trading desks, according to the FERC staff report on the status of the agency’s probe into energy price manipulation and trading irregularities.

Calpine Corp., one of two West Coast merchant power plant developers to take it on the chin last Thursday, reported depressed second quarter financial results, mirroring unprecedented low wholesale electricity prices nationally in which the average spark spread between fuel prices and power prices are at historic lows below $5. Both PG&E Corp. (see separate story) and Calpine reported net income that was reduced for the quarter compared to the period a year earlier.

Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline LP, operator of a major intrastate system located in the Texas Gulf Coast, has filed an amendment to an application to construct a border-crossing pipeline to serve the expanding natural gas demand in northern Mexico.

Unocal Corp. said it will cut about 200 positions from its Gulf Coast region exploration and production operations, which will reduce its total work force by about 7%, as part of a restructuring operation designed to improve its overall cost structure and profitability and better position the unit for ongoing exploratory success. The program also is expected to include some asset sales in the region by the end of the year.

A fourth proposal for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along a 60-mile stretch of Pacific Coast in North Baja California, Mexico, was formally announced by Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Shell outlined plans for a $500 million facility in Costa Azul, in the municipality of Ensenada, which is not far from the proposed site for another LNG terminal being planned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. The Shell terminal will have a send-out capacity of up to 1.3 Bcf/d and is expected to come on stream in 2006.

The warm winter in the East is showing up in financials from distribution companies up and down the East Coast, but at least one of them will be collecting on its weather insurance. New Jersey-based NUI Corp., Washington, DC-based WGL Holdings Inc. and North Carolina-based Piedmont Natural Gas Co., said warmer than normal temperatures in their natural gas service areas and the current economic recession are having an effect on earnings in 2002.