Doors

Culminating a three-month, behind-closed-doors effort, the Bush administration’s energy task force today will issue its much-anticipated report in which it will map out a long-term strategy to bolster the nation’s sagging energy infrastructure, promote conservation and efficiency efforts, accelerate siting of transmission and open more public lands to producers to head off a worsening “storm cloud on the horizon.” The report will set the “tone” for the entire federal government on energy policy, telling it this is “the” issue on which attention should be focused.

Denver-based Barrett Resources Corp., still stating publicly that it is barring the doors against a hostile takeover by giant Royal Dutch/Shell, postponed its annual shareholder meeting set for early May, as it continues to search for strategic options to Shell’s cash offer of $55 per share. Barrett rejected the amount as inadequate, but Shell has continued the pursuit, extending its offer through midnight last Friday.

More gas processing plants are temporarily shutting their doorsthis month, a fallout from higher natural gas prices. The usuallymore expensive gas liquids now cost less than the raw natural gas,and buyers looking for propane, butane, isobutane and chemicalfeedstocks may have to look a little longer and spend a little morethan they did a month ago.

More gas processing plants are temporarily shutting their doorsthis month, a fallout from higher natural gas prices. The usuallymore expensive gas liquids now cost less than the raw natural gas,and buyers looking for propane, butane, isobutane and chemicalfeedstocks may have to look a little longer and spend a little morethan they did a month ago.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has opened a new Strategic Centerfor Natural Gas that will oversee a full range of the agency’sgas-related activities.

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week opened a new StrategicCenter for Natural Gas that will oversee a full range of theagency’s gas-related activities.

Amerada Hess agreed to buy gas and power marketer Statoil Energy ServicesInc. of Alexandria, VA, for what a Hess spokesman said was less than $25million. Statoil Energy Services serves industrial and commercial customers,mainly in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Williams opened the doors to its new 300-position,21,000-square-foot energy trading floor, which it says featurestechnology, design and amenities surpassing those of most companiesin the nation. The trading floor is part of a new236,000-square-foot resource center adjacent to the 50-floorWilliams Tower in Tulsa, OK, where Williams has its corporateheadquarters. “As the second most profitable energy marketer in thenation, we remain committed to our customers by providing ourtraders with the absolute best tools available to compete andsucceed,” said Jerry Gollnick, senior vice president of energymarketing and trading for Williams.