Future

Seagull Energy’s board has elected James T. Hackett as its newpresident and CEO, and its future chairman. Hackett, 44, has beenpresident of Duke’s Energy Services Division. Prior to that he wasexecutive vice president of PanEnergy. He will succeed Barry J.Galt, who has been chairman and CEO since 1983. Galt will continueto serve as chairman for the remainder of the year before beingelected vice chairman, at which time Hackett will assume theadditional position of chairman. Hackett said he looks forward tothe opportunity. Seagull “has a good management team, a solidbalance sheet and a strong collection of domestic and internationalassets.” Hackett has held a variety of positions in finance,marketing and engineering in the exploration and production andmidstream sectors of the industry for Amoco, Burlington Resourcesand NGC Corp. (now Dynegy). Subsequently, Seagull announced John W.Elias resigned as executive vice president and a director. Elias,who joined Seagull in 1993, supervised the company’s domestic andinternational oil and gas operations.

Seagull Energy’s board has elected James T. Hackett as its newpresident and CEO, and its future chairman. Hackett, 44, has beenpresident of Duke’s Energy Services Division. Prior to that he wasexecutive vice president of PanEnergy.

There will be no shortage of natural gas to fill the new wave ofCanadian export pipeline projects or a future generation offacilities yet to be born, according to veterans of the supplysector north of the international border.

Four factors will continue to tighten the future domestic gassupply picture, Randy Mundt, executive vice president of marketingfor producer Burlington Resources, said Tuesday at Ziff EnergyGroups’ New Gas Dynamics 2000+ conference in Houston. The twobiggest factors are producers’ difficulty in replacing productionand accelerated decline rates in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, Mundtsaid, Canadian imports are not an immediate threat to domesticproducers, and the current supply-demand scenario is roughly inbalance.

NGC Corp. clearly believes renewable energy is the product ofthe future and has signed an agreement to supply power generatedfrom renewable sources to Green Mountain Energy Resources forretail power customers in California. NGC will supply wholesalepower for two of the three products Green Mountain is selling: itsWater Power blend and its 75% Renewable Power blend, according toTom Boucher, vice president of energy supply and businessdevelopment at Green Mountain. The wholesale power will come fromdifferent types of generating facilities in California and thewestern region, including small-scale hydro, geothermal, andbiomass facilities. A contractual chain will ensure that GreenMountain’s retail customers are purchasing power from a renewableor hydro source, said Doug Boccignone, director of marketing forNGC’s Electric Clearinghouse.

FERC has scheduled a public conference for April 15-16 toexamine the future of ISOs in administering the electrictransmission grid on a regional basis. The Commission isconsidering whether policy changes are necessary “in order topromote competition and reliability in bulk power markets.”

Amoco plans to develop one of its largest gas discoveriesoffshore Trinidad and Tobago to serve future demand on the islandsand supply the Atlantic LNG export project in Trinidad.