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Another day, another corporate scandal. On Thursday, the target was Westar Energy Inc. Chairman David Wittig, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and four counts of submitting false books to a federally insured bank in Topeka, KS.

Another day, another corporate scandal. On Thursday, the target was Westar Energy Inc. Chairman David Wittig, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and four counts of submitting false books to a federally insured bank in Topeka, KS.

El Paso Natural Gas has been subpoenaed by a New Mexico grand jury to turn over documents in connection with the fiery blast on its South Mainline system that killed 12 members of two extended families in August 2000, the company told the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in documents filed Thursday.

Northwest said it expects a Declared Deficiency Period to be in effect at milepost 240 near Grand Junction, CO for next Tuesday’s gas day. The pipeline’s tariff defines a DDP as beginning “on the day when aggregate nominations using constraint point firm rights exceed constraint point actual capacity and Transporter is unable to schedule otherwise acceptable nominations due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.” Northwest will be replacing pipe for about 30 hours Tuesday at anomaly locations identified in a recent pigging project. There will be no mainline flow between milepost 232 and milepost 240 during the work. Similar projects are planned for Aug. 30 and Sept. 4 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21).

BP shut in 13 MMcf/d of production from its platform in Grand Isle Block 93 after an explosion and fire early Friday on a jack-up drilling rig nearby.

Aquila Inc. made its initial public offering in grand style yesterday, becoming one of the hottest traded IPOs in a lackluster market, coming off the blocks at an opening price of $29.75 on the New York Stock Exchange — almost 25% above its offering price of $24. It was the third-most actively traded stock on the NYSE, with more than 7.8 million shares changing hands.

As a result of compression outages at Grand Chenier Station on the southwest Louisiana coast, volumes that ANR can receive there from HIOS and the West Cameron near-shore blocks was cut by about 40 MMcf/d Wednesday until further notice.

Aquila Inc. made its initial public offering in grand style last week, becoming one of the hottest traded IPOs in a lackluster market, coming off the blocks at an opening price of $29.75 on the New York Stock Exchange — almost 25% above its offering price of $24. The first-day offering raised about $430 million, and was the third-most actively traded stock on the NYSE Wednesday, with more than 7.8 million shares changing hands.

Texas Eastern plans minor maintenance for a few hours Thursdaymorning at the Grand Chenier (LA) Station. Operators may experiencehigher than normal pressures on the West Louisiana zone’s CameronSystem, but pressures are expected to return to normal by evening.