Complex

The Canadian government has served notice that it intends to move the Mackenzie Gas Project along as briskly as the complex northern regulatory apparatus will permit.

The Canadian government has served notice that it intends to move the Mackenzie Gas Project along as briskly as the complex northern regulatory apparatus will permit.

Federal prosecutors apparently are increasing their efforts to determine whether former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling should face criminal charges, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Both Lay and Skilling have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing during their tenure at Enron, but investigators apparently are focusing on “individuals who possess evidence” to decide whether they could pursue criminal charges against one or both men.

In a second report on the complex financial dealings at Enron Corp., the court-appointed examiner has concluded that the former trading firm used six accounting techniques within its special purpose entities (SPE) to “engineer its financial statements so that they diverged materially from Enron’s actual economic condition and performance.” The SPEs apparently accounted for 96% of Enron’s $979 million in net income for 2000, and allowed it to report debt of only $10.2 billion instead of $22.1 billion.

Nine months after approving a settlement to unbundle the Southern California Gas Co. backbone transmission and underground storage systems, stakeholders and California regulators are still waiting for it to happen (see Daily GPI, March 18; Dec. 12, 2001)

Nine months after approving a settlement to unbundle the Southern California Gas Co. backbone transmission and underground storage systems, stakeholders and California regulators are still waiting for it to happen (see Daily GPI, March 18; Dec. 12, 2001)

In sympathy with its petroleum complex brethren, and amid concerns that it is not too late in the season to suffer hurricane-related production loss, natural gas futures shuffled higher Monday, after a disappointing opening trade threatened to take the prompt month to new lows. November finished the session at $2.27, 4.3 cents higher for the day and 13 cents above its Oct. 1 lows.

California regulators are getting backlogged with key issues they must resolve in the increasingly complex and tight time frame that is left to fashion an economic solution to the state’s energy woes–regardless of how events unfold at the federal level. There is little more than a month for actions that would keep on track the state’s proposed bond sale, which now is slated for late summer or early fall.

Ocean Energy, Inc. said yesterday that it has agreed to sell allof its interests and assets in its East Bay Complex for $86million. The buyer’s identity was not disclosed. The propertiesconsist of South Pass 24, South Pass 27 and South Pass 39 Fields,located in the Mississippi Delta Region of the Gulf of Mexico. Thetransaction is expected to close March 31 subject to normal andcustomary conditions. CEO James Hackett said in a statement thatthe move was made in order to high-grade Ocean’s balance sheet andgain capital so that it could accumulate higher margin inventory.