Energy

Semco Energy reported net income of $12.0 million or $0.67 pershare for the first quarter of the year a 12% increase from the$0.60 per share on net income of $10.4 million for the firstquarter of 1999. “We are off to a good start in meeting our goalsfor the year, despite the third year in a row of warmer than normalweather,” said CEO William L. Johnson. “Had temperatures for theperiod been normal, we would have reported record first quarterearnings of approximately $0.82 per share in 2000 compared toweather-normalized earnings of $0.63 per share in 1999.” Theincrease in earnings was attributable primarily to higher earningsfrom gas distribution, offset partially by seasonal losses from itsconstruction business. Volumes of gas sold and transportedincreased from 25.2 Bcf in the first quarter of 1999 to 39.3 Bcf inthe first quarter of 2000. The increase is attributed primarily tothe operations of the recent acquisition in Alaska offset partiallyby the impact of warmer weather. Temperatures for the first quarterof 2000 were 11% warmer than normal and also warmer than the firstquarter of 1999 when temperatures were 2% warmer than normal.

The other shoe – five times larger than the first – dropped on Reliant Energy’s Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P) Tuesday in a case that found the utility defrauded three Texas cities of fees owed for its exclusive right to sell electricity. Yesterday, a district court jury in Houston awarded the three cities $10 million each in punitive damages. That’s on top of $4.2 million in actual damages (about $6 million including interest and attorneys’ fees) awarded last week (see Daily GPI April 3).

After much nudging from the courts, state regulators andindustry, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last weekconceded defeat in its battle to justify jurisdiction over a smalllateral in Colorado.

In a very terse order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissiondenied producers’ request to stay the waiver of the price caps onshort-term capacity release transactions in time for the scheduledlifting of the price ceiling over the weekend.

Williams Energy Marketing & Trading has petitioned FERC toissue a declaratory order stating that its ban against “buy-sell”arrangements doesn’t apply to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS),particularly to the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) royaltyin-kind projects.

Georgia Strait Crossing Pipeline Ltd. filed a preliminaryenvironmental scoping submission with Canada’s National EnergyBoard to build and operate its planned gas pipeline to VancouverIsland. The company expects to file an application with the NEBthis fall.

Altra Energy Technologies Inc. and Junot Systems Inc., anenterprise application integration (EAI) solutions provider, madean alliance to provide gas pipelines with Altra Web as astand-alone GISB-compliant web-based electronic bulletin boardsolution. Altra Web provides compliance with GISB requirements anduses the latest in Internet technology.

Williams Energy Marketing & Trading has petitioned FERC fora declaratory order stating that its ban against “buy-sell”arrangements doesn’t apply to the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS),particularly to the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) royaltyin-kind projects.

Williams Gas Pipeline-Central received a certificate from theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission to provide up to 55,000 Dth/dof additional firm gas transportation service to the EmpireDistrict Electric Company State Line Plant in Jasper County, MO.Williams plans to uprate its Blackwell-Cotton Valley pipeline inWashington County, OK, from 500 psi of maximum allowable pressureto 690 psi. It also will lay 37 miles of 20-inch pipe in Labetteand Cherokee Counties, KS, to extend to its Southern Trunk loopline. And it will add measurement facilities at the Empire Plant.Empire is installing an additional gas turbine, two heat recoverygenerators and a steam turbine generator to create a 500-plus MWcombined-cycle plant. Williams currently provides up to 28,800Dth/d of gas to the plant.