Expanded

Noble Affiliate Inc.’s board of directors has approved an expanded program to repurchase common stock from time to time in the open market or privately negotiated transactions. The Houston company’s original program of $50 million has been increased to $100 million, and of the $100 million now authorized, about $70 million remains available to purchase additional shares. The company has already repurchased $30 million of stock and intends to hold all of the repurchased stock shares as treasury shares. As of Aug. 6, there were 56.6 million shares of issued and outstanding common stock.

Congressional passage of President Bush’s energy initiatives, as well as expanded free trade authority, will have a “great bearing” on the nation’s economy this year and beyond, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech Monday to the Southern Governors’ Association (SGA).

Dynegy Inc. said Tuesday it has expanded its e-commerce site, Dynegydirect.com, into the United Kingdom energy market, reflecting the “increasing demand for Dynegy’s products in Europe as well as the successful launch…in North America last year,” said Gary Cardone, president of Dynegy Europe Ltd.

Destin Pipeline is holding an open season through 1 p.m. CDT Aug. 30 to assess interest in expanded services. Recent offshore developments have indicated a potential need for extra capacity, Destin said. Currently it is capable of moving 1 Bcf/d.

FERC’s mid-June order expanding price-mitigation around the clock and to the entire western region came under sharp attack from power marketers and generators last week, with some saying it could lead to an “inevitable exodus of marketers” and a “new wave” generation project cancellations in the West.

As speculation mounts over whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is about to expand its California market mitigation plan to 24 hours a day, seven days a week across the West this summer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) yesterday questioned whether such a move would eliminate what she asserted was a gaming of the system by generators to boost power prices.

Pacific Gas & Electric extended into Sunday a Stage 3 high-inventory OFO that had been implemented Saturday, then expanded it Monday into a Stage 4 OFO with greatly increased penalties of $25/Dth for positive imbalances exceeding a 1% tolerance. No OFO was in effect Tuesday, but the utility reinstituted a Stage 3 order for today with $5/Dth penalties and an 8% tolerance.

The New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) board is expected to rule today on a proposal that would allow it to expand and increase financial penalties for power plant owners that are found to have engaged in the exercise of market power. Generators in the state are asking the NYISO to reject the plan, arguing that it will remove incentives for power suppliers to sell electricity into New York during critical peak demand periods.

Pacific Gas & Electric expanded what had been a customer-specific OFO for Saturday into systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFOs for Sunday and Monday. The sytemwide OFOs carried $5/Dth penalties for positive daily imbalances exceeding a 2% tolerance. However, no order is in place for today.