Employees

A BP team of more than 100 employees and contractors was making “significant progress” on recovery operations at its Fort Saskatchewan Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) storage facility that caught fire in an early morning explosion Aug. 26 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 28). The facility is located about four miles northeast of Fort Saskatchewan, AB.

Two additional former San Diego Gas & Electric employees who worked at Duke Energy’s South Bay Power Plant in Chula Vista, CA, came forward Thursday in a press conference in Sacramento hosted by California’s Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, adding to allegations that the merchant generator manipulated the power plant’s operations to drive up wholesale prices earlier in the year.

This year has been nothing less than tumultuous for TransCanadaPipelines, which already has sold $1 billion in assets and cut 600jobs. But the Canadian pipeline giant apparently is just gettingstarted. It announced plans yesterday to unload another 15% of itsholdings for expected net proceeds of about $3 billion. The movewill mean the departure of about one-third of its workforce by theend of next year.

Conectiv sold the southern regional division of ConectivServices, which is located in southern Delaware and easternMaryland, to the unit’s employees. Terms of the sale were notdisclosed. The southern division provided new construction,replacement, service and maintenance of heating, cooling, andplumbing services for residential and commercial customers. Themove continues Conectiv’s previously announced plan to exitbusinesses it no longer considers strategic, and seek a partner forits telecommunications business, and focus on its core mid-meritand power delivery segments. Earlier this year, Conectiv announcedthe sale of the northern and mechanical divisions of ConectivServices and the sale of its Conectiv Thermal joint ventures inCalifornia and Nevada. Conectiv is focused on two core energybusinesses: Conectiv Power Delivery, which provides energy serviceto more than one million customers in New Jersey, Delaware,Maryland, and Virginia; and Conectiv Energy, which includes powertrading and a growing portfolio of “mid-merit” power plants.

News Flash! Energy companies can be fun too. Such is the caseinvolving Williams employees, who according to the company, willattempt to complete the largest money raising bike ride fundraiserin the United States. Some 80 cyclists will embark on a relay-style2,000 mile journey departing from New York City on Sept. 25 andarriving at Williams Tower in Houston on Oct. 3. In the secondannual “Williams’ 2000 Riding The Line” fundraiser, each rider willcover approximately 60 to 70 miles a day, roughly tracing the pathof the company’s Transco natural gas pipeline andtelecommunications network. The fundraiser hopes to raise $5million for United Way, which if successful will be the singlelargest event in the charity’s 110-year history. The team raisedmore than $2 million dollars in the ride’s inaugural year.

Contango Oil & Gas Co. may be small — it only had threeemployees two months ago — but no one can say the Houston companydoesn’t have big plans.

ScottishPower announced a transition plan for PacifiCorpyesterday that includes a workforce reduction of 1,600 PacifiCorpemployees over the next five years. By 2004, PacifiCorp is expectedto deliver annual cost savings from 1998 levels of $300 million inoperating expenses and $250 million in capital expenditures.Employee reductions will occur from all areas of the businessacross the company’s six-state service area. ScottishPower is aleading international multi-utility company with a marketcapitalization of about $16 billion and 7.5 million customersacross the U.K., western U.S. and Australia. Its merger withPortland, OR-based PacifiCorp was completed in November 1999.PacifiCorp currently serves 1.5 million customers in Oregon, Utah,Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and California.

The axe fell last week on thousands more Exxon Mobil employeeswho will lose their jobs due to the merger that created the supermajor. The company said it will cut 16,000 jobs, about 15% of itsworkforce, by the end of 2002. Exxon and Mobil predicted job cutsof only 9,000 when they announced their merger a year ago. The $81billion deal was approved Nov. 30.

The effects of deregulation are still being felt by AGLResources, the parent of the now-totally unbundled Atlanta GasLight, as 151 employees, or 7% of the workforce, has been cut sinceAugust, the company said recently. No more layoffs are expected,although the company did say it is always looking for ways toimprove efficiency.