Doing

With its upstream production doing better than anticipated, Calgary-based Petro-Canada plans to increase its capital spending program for western Canada, the Mackenzie Delta and along the East Coast, where it has assets in White Rose and drilling prospects along the Scotian Shelf. Second quarter earnings were down from a year earlier, mostly on lower oil and gas prices, but its production more than doubled for the period, fueled by an international acquisition as well as its Terra Nova asset.

In a small bit of irony last December when Enron Corp. had filed for bankruptcy, American Electric Power’s Eric van der Walde, the executive vice president of trading and marketing, said the wholesale energy marketplace was “bigger and stronger than any one company” and other leading wholesale energy providers would weather the storm and fill “any market needs that may arise.” That was then, this is now. Few market observers are so confident today.

Reliant Resources is doing well in the opening innings of retail electric choice in the ERCOT market and looks to growing retail sales to provide a natural hedge to its wholesale market operations, Chairman Steve Letbetter told stockholders in making a delayed announcement Friday of very positive fourth quarter and full year 2001 earnings for the Resources group and parent Reliant Energy.

California regulators will hold public hearings Tuesday and Wednesday in the mountains and high desert region about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles as part of an investigation into the skyrocketing natural gas prices last winter charged by Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp.

As sources had predicted, mild softness dominated Thursday’s cash market. Some points were flat, and a large majority registered declines of about a nickel or less. Only a few scattered points saw drops of about a dime or more, and several of those were associated with the Chicago market.

What had seemed earlier to be a rather innocuous tropical wave, doing little more than providing lots of rain for the Florida peninsula, emerged as Tropical Storm Barry around midday Thursday and suddenly posed a very real threat to Gulf of Mexico production. Although most prices continued to soften Thursday, sources look for Barry to generate a rally in today’s trading for the weekend. The screen pointed the way upward for cash with a dime-plus gain Thursday.

Rig operators are doing better than ever, said Houston-based Global Marine Inc. executives last week. Global Marine said dayrates for offshore oil and gas drilling rigs will shoot past the 1997-98 levels, based partly on energy proposals from the Bush Administration and because of increased drilling in international markets. Other operators also are benefiting: Tulsa-based Unit Corp. said its drilling demand in the Gulf Coast region has jumped 26% in just six months.

The Sempra Atlantic Gas distribution project is doing more thanflowing natural gas – it’s also pouring in benefits andopportunities for the Nova Scotians living in the area, accordingto the company’s first annual benefits report, a 36-page documentthat details employment, procurement of goods and services andcontracts. Sempra holds the franchise to develop, build and operatethe province’s natural gas distribution system.

‘Tis the season to spend money, and many of North America’s large and small producers are doing just that, dropping bonuses into the envelopes of newly expanded exploration and development programs for the coming year. In recent days, both U.S. and Canadian producers have announced visions of increased energy production next year, with most of the promise in domestic natural gas development.