Four

“Hope” was the operative four-letter word in California last week if you had anything to do with the energy industry or government as Friday saw the previous day’s specter of rolling blackouts from razor-thin electricity reserves ease.

In the waning day of the Clinton administration, Chairman FrankMurkowski (R-AK) and four other Republican members of the SenateEnergy and Natural Resources Committee have called on the presidentto refrain from enacting regulations that could put off limits evenmore federal lands for natural gas and oil producers. Such actionwould only aggravate the current gas price and supply crisis, theysaid.

Exxon Mobil Corp. will appeal a record $3.5 billion verdictannounced yesterday by an Alabama jury, which found the oil companyhad defrauded the state and underpaid royalties on natural gas wellleases in state waters. The case centered on charges that theenergy giant had underpaid up to $87.7 million in royalties on theMobile Bay natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP and PricewaterhouseCoopers are expanding their businessprocess outsourcing (BPO) relationship, first begun four years agoin South America, to now include North America. The contractaddition, worth more than $200 million over nine years, willinclude BP’s newly acquired ARCO and Vastar onshore and offshoreU.S. Lower 48 operations.

About four months after FPL Group announced its intentions topurchase Entergy Corp. for $13.9 billion, the companies reported thatthey have jointly filed an application with the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission for approval of the union which would create thelargest utility in the nation (see Daily GPI, Aug. 1).

It was short but sweet for bulls in Wednesday’sholiday-abbreviated trading session as gas futures rebounded froman early and brief foray into negative territory to notch its 15thgain in 17 trading sessions. Adding to a $2.00-plus price spike offlows etched Oct. 31, December clawed 16.9 cents higher Wednesday toclose at $6.577. Meanwhile January finished up 15.2 cents at $6.584after posting a new all-time commodity high at $6.70.

Following a four-year upswing in spending between 1995 and 1998,domestic oil and natural gas industry expenditures for drilling inthe U.S. fell 15.2% in 1999, the American Petroleum Institute (API)reported last week.

Following a four-year upswing in spending between 1995 and 1998,domestic oil and natural gas industry expenditures for drilling inthe U.S. fell 15.2% last year, the American Petroleum Institute(API) reported.

Almost four months after its scheduled date, Maine Natural Gas(MNG), a joint venture between the CMP Group and Energy East, begandelivery of natural gas yesterday to Calpine Corp.’s new 540 MWelectric generating facility located in Westbrook, ME. The companyalso began supplying the University of Southern Maine (USM) andparts of Gorham, ME.