Executives

After seeing its corporate credit rating downgraded to two levels below “junk status” and its stock skid to a low of 78 cents at one point last week, Williams Cos. Inc. got some much-needed good news Friday. First, the company announced it had reached an agreement in principle with California and a number of other parties, including Washington and Oregon, on a settlement to resolve all outstanding litigation/claims and refunds for electricity overcharges, and then FERC signaled it probably would not strip Williams of its license to sell power at unregulated rates.

The National Energy Marketers Association (NEM) on Wednesday named two energy executives to lead an industry task force that will be dedicated to reestablishing stability and financial credibility in North American wholesale energy markets. Michael Walker, senior vice president of Caminus Corp., and Lee Taylor, senior vice president of Prebon Energy, will head up the task force that is expected to take a leadership role in addressing specific accounting issues.

The National Energy Marketers Association (NEM) on Wednesday named two energy executives to lead an industry task force that will be dedicated to reestablishing stability and financial credibility in North American wholesale energy markets. Michael Walker, senior vice president of Caminus Corp., and Lee Taylor, senior vice president of Prebon Energy, will head up the task force that is expected to take a leadership role in addressing specific accounting issues.

Congressional investigators have discovered “substantial evidence of illegal activity” by the once-powerful Enron Corp. and its top-level executives to “deceive the public” about its financial condition, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) said in an opening hearing statement Wednesday.

Several former Enron Corp. executives, who left the company last July and long before it spiraled into bankruptcy, have launched Celeren Corp., which will provide risk management energy services through the sale of energy outsource products for small- to mid-sized businesses and institutions. The Philadelphia-based company also will offer independent power generation services. Celeren, which will serve customers nationwide, will offer commodity procurement and management; capital improvements; financing; and operation and maintenance. Thomas A. Brigger, former Mid-Atlantic regional manager for Enron Energy Services (EES) is CEO and Donald S. Parker, a former regional director for EES, is COO.

Dynegy Corp. executives have to be scratching their heads at what it’s going to take to restore investor confidence. The Houston-based energy trader by all accounts had a stellar week: a bold restructuring plan to shed non-core assets, sale of 25 million shares of its stock, winning the first legal round in battle with Enron Corp., and an expanded multi-year natural gas marketing agreement with ChevronTexaco.

As a group of protesters from Mount Vernon, NY, and several Millennium Pipeline Co. LP executives anxiously looked on last Wednesday, FERC voted out a “compromise” interim order that awarded conditional approval to Millennium to build all but the last two miles of the U.S. leg of the pipeline that would run through the city of Mount Vernon.

Amid a heightened state of alert, executives from 11 major oil and natural gas corporations met last Thursday outside of Washington, DC, to form an information sharing and analysis center (ISAC) to address industry- and company-specific security risks and threats.

Amid a heightened state of alert, executives from 11 major oil and natural gas corporations will meet Thursday outside of Washington, DC, to form what will be known as an information sharing and analysis center (ISAC) to address industry- and company-specific security risks and threats.