Enron

The Minneapolis-based merchant power subsidiary of Xcel Energy filed its long anticipated voluntary petition for reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Several affiliates, including NRG Power Marketing and NRG Northeast Generating LLC, also filed for protection, but parent company Xcel was not pulled under.

Calypso Pipeline, a subsidiary of Enron Global LNG, asked FERC last week for permission to build a $132 million pipeline that would transport up to 832,000 MMBtu/d of regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Bahamas to an interconnect with Florida Gas Transmission (FGT). According to Calypso’s application, the project would provide Florida consumers with “the opportunity to diversify their gas supply options with the installation of minor additional pipeline facilities.”

Enron affiliate Mariner Energy has sold its remaining 25% working interest in 32 blocks in the Falcon area in the Gulf of Mexico, including the Falcon field and the first quarter 2003 Harrier discovery located in East Breaks 758 and 759 to Pioneer Natural Resources for $121.6 million. Mariner said it will retain a 4.25% royalty interest on seven non-producing blocks in the Falcon Area. Pioneer also assumed certain contractual obligations relating to the Falcon Area from Mariner.

No longer believers in the Enron Corp. energy trading mantra that “bigger is better,” Mirant Corp. and Reliant Resources Inc. executives said Thursday that the focus now is on cash — finding it, paying off debts with it and keeping as much of it as they can. They both conceded that for them, anyway, physical gas trading has not become a cash cow.

No longer believers in the Enron Corp. energy trading mantra that “bigger is better,” Mirant Corp. and Reliant Resources Inc. executives said Thursday that the focus now is on cash — finding it, paying off debts with it and keeping as much of it as they can. They both conceded that for them, anyway, physical gas trading has not become a cash cow.

The post-Enron Corp. energy industry erosion of financial sector confidence will only be reversed by companies and the overall industry developing more standardized contracts and greater disclosure, according to speakers at a day-long Standard & Poor’s “Power and Energy Credit Conference” Wednesday in New York City. The rating agency’s speakers also said their ratings work will continue to be done on a company-by-company basis, so individual companies do not have to be tainted by the current industry torpor.

With Enron’s Bahamas LNG project on the rocks because of the bankruptcy and no sign yet of El Paso’s LNG plans for the island, AES took the lead spot last month in the race to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in the Bahamas with a pipeline to Florida. The company filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the $440 million Ocean Express pipeline.

With Enron’s Bahamas LNG project on the rocks because of the bankruptcy and no sign yet of El Paso’s LNG plans, AES took the lead spot last month in the race to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in the Bahamas with a pipeline to Florida. The company filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the $440 million Ocean Express pipeline.

In a story that ran in NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index on Dec. 5, titled “Gas Sales Soar 24% in 3Q, but Enron Casts Dark Cloud Over Future,” NGI noted that BP is expected to expand its trading and marketing activities because of it purchase of TransCanada’s marketing operations in September. However, NGI failed to mention that Mirant actually is buying the larger portion of TransCanada’s marketing and trading business, a book covering about 5.1 Bcf/d of TransCanada’s first quarter sales of 7.9 Bcf/d. In September, BP Gas & Power bought TransCanada’s CanStates Gas Marketing, a contract to manage gas supply assets for SEMCO Energy Gas Co., and its marketing and trading operations in its Omaha, NE office. Mirant, however, will become the largest gas dealer in Canada and the top exporter as well with its TransCanada purchase. The deal raises Mirant’s profile in Canadian gas into the range of 6-7 Bcf/d and boosts its total North American gas sales to about 18.2 Bcf/d, which could put it at the top of the rankings in the fourth quarter. TransCanada, Canada’s largest natural gas transporter, exited the natural gas marketing business to focus on its core natural gas transportation and power businesses in Canada and the northern tier of the United States.