Enron Corp. is in shreds, literally and figuratively, with a week marked by dramatic accusations, the founder quietly resigning, and a former vice chairman tragically dying from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. As Congress began its intense investigations of the company and its auditor, Arthur Andersen, there only was one tiny bit of good news for the company and its supporters. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York approved a deal for UBS Warburg to pick up its quickly fading wholesale energy trading unit.
Executive
Articles from Executive
Former Enron Exec Appointed to Texas PUC
Former Enron executive Mario Max Yzaguirre, who recently resigned as president of Enron de Mexico, has been named by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to fill the spot vacated by Judy Walsh on the three-member Texas Public Utilities Commission. Perry still has one spot to fill after former Chairman Pat Wood III was named to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Letter Suggests Not All of Enron’s Entities Disclosed
As regulators and lawyers pick apart the details of Enron Corp.’s undoing, a letter written by a company executive to CEO Kenneth Lay last year raises the possibility that the company may have to reduce past earnings by another $1.3 billion. The letter discloses two investment vehicles — one not previously disclosed — which could cut into earnings more than its four-year restatement in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 9, 2001).
Westchester County, NY, Wages War Against Millennium on All Fronts
County Executive Andrew Spano of Westchester County, NY, vowed Thursday to use every “administrative, political and legal weapon” at his disposal to block construction of the embattled Millennium Pipeline project through the city of Mount Vernon.
Williams to Cut Capital Spending 25% in ’02, Sell Non-Core Assets
Faced with what an executive called the “new reality in financial markets,” Tulsa-based Williams said Wednesday it would cut capital spending by $1 billion, or 25%, next year and sell non-core assets to raise between $250 million and $750 million in a scheme to strengthen its balance sheet. Williams also plans to issue $1 billion in mandatory convertible preferred securities in 2002, all steps in a plan to retain its investment-grade credit rating.
Transwestern Denies Withheld Capacity to Boost Negotiated Deals
A Transwestern Pipeline executive last week dismissed allegations that the pipeline withheld firm transportation capacity for service to California from recourse-rate shippers last winter by arranging substantially more lucrative negotiated-rate deals prior to posting available capacity to its web site.
Transwestern Denies Withheld Capacity to Boost Negotiated Deals
A Transwestern Pipeline executive yesterday dismissed allegations that the pipeline withheld firm transportation capacity bound for California from its recourse-rate shippers last winter in order to free up more capacity for contracts at substantially higher negotiated rates.
People
Gasco Energy Inc. has appointed Michael Decker to the positions of COO and executive vice president. Decker has 24 years of oil and gas prospecting, mergers and acquisitions, development and operations experience. He is also chairman of the Potential Gas Committee, an independent group that provides estimates and reports on the nation’s long-range gas supply. Decker is the past vice president of exploitation with Prima Energy Corp., a Denver-based independent oil and gas company. Decker is also currently the owner and president of Black Diamond Energy, a geological engineering, operations, prospecting and merger and acquisition consulting firm. Gasco Energy is a Denver-based natural gas and oil exploration and development company that focuses in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The company currently holds interests in properties located in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah, which are being developed through an agreement with Phillips Petroleum.
People
Prima Energy Corp. reported on Wednesday that Neil L. Stenbuck has joined the company as executive vice president and CFO, effective May 16. Stenbuck will fill a newly created position at Prima, where the company’s president and CEO, Richard H. Lewis, has also served as Prima’s CFO since the company was founded in 1980. Stenbuck held the position of vice president and CFO at Basin Exploration. from 1995 until earlier this year, when that company was merged with Stone Energy Corp.
Sempra to Save TX Air Force Base $254,000/Year
In an effort to comply with Executive Order 13123, which statesthat government agencies must cut energy use 30% by 2005 and 35% by2010, based on 1985 emission levels, Goodfellow Air Force Baselocated in San Angelo, TX, has entered a 15-year energy savingsagreement with Sempra Energy Solutions (SES).