Drive

The drive by the Connecticut Attorney General to keep the new 24-mile, 330 MW underwater cable system linking Connecticut to Long Island from going into operation on Monday could jeopardize power reliability on Long Island during the hottest part of the summer.

The long-term adequacy of California’s natural gas transmission pipeline and storage system will be driven by the timing and location of new gas-fired electric generation throughout the western states, and the points of view of the analysts making the assessments as demonstrated Tuesday by state and utility gas experts speaking at the three-day GasMart/Power conference in Reno, NV. The experts think there will be growing overcapacity in the California gas system, but the key questions will be how much and who pays for it?

Petro-Canada has won the latest round in a continuing drive by Canadian natural gas producers to foster a competitive market in pipeline services. The National Energy Board (NEB) granted Petro-Canada approval to lay a bypass, titled the Medicine Hat Pipeline, past southeastern Alberta facilities of TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.’s Nova Gas Transmission. The project also detours around earlier bypass lines built in the prolific production region by Alberta Energy Co (AEC).

Petro-Canada has won the latest round in a continuing drive by Canadian natural-gas producers to foster a competitive market in pipeline services. The National Energy Board (NEB) granted Petro-Canada approval to lay a bypass, called the Medicine Hat Pipeline, past southeastern Alberta facilities of TransCanada Pipelines Ltd.’s Nova Gas Transmission. The project also detours around earlier bypass lines built in the prolific production region by Alberta Energy Co (AEC).

Senate Republicans mounted a late-session offensive drive last week to bring energy legislation before the entire upper chamber, but by the end of the week, when the dust had settled, it wasn’t clear if they had gained any real ground.

A decline in global and industrial demand for oil and natural gas is likely to drive commodity prices lower and keep them there for the near to intermediate term, according to an article in the latest edition of the Oil & Gas Insights newsletter from Fitch. As a result, the rating agency has lowered its price deck for oil and gas to $19.50 and $2.15, respectively, for 2002.

A decline in global and industrial demand for oil and natural gas is likely to drive commodity prices lower and keep them there for the near to intermediate term, according to an article in the latest edition of the ‘Oil & Gas Insights’ newsletter from Fitch. As a result, the rating agency has lowered its price deck for oil and gas to $19.50 and $2.15, respectively, for 2002.

Driven in large part by an expected 37% increase in Aquila Energy earnings in the third quarter, UtiliCorp United said it expects to beat analysts’ expectations of 52 cents/share with earnings per share of $0.56-0.58 and net income of $66-69 million. That compared with net income last year during the same quarter of $0.80 per share or $74.9 million, which included a special $29 million gain ($0.30/share) from the initial public offering of Uecomm, Ltd. in Australia.

Driven in large part by an expected 37% increase in Aquila Energy earnings in the third quarter, UtiliCorp United said it expects to beat analysts’ expectations of 52 cents/share with earnings per share of $0.56-0.58 and net income of $66-69 million. That compared with net income last year during the same quarter of $0.80 per share or $74.9 million, which included a special $29 million gain ($0.30/share) from the initial public offering of Uecomm, Ltd. in Australia.