Greater

Upstream production, mostly focused in North America and northwestern Europe, is the new ConocoPhillips’ strategy going forward, with up to 75% of the capital deployed toward exploration and production, the company’s E&P chief said Wednesday. Although the combined companies’ current production mix is 59% oil and 41% natural gas, by mid-decade gas production will be close to half.

In an effort to bring greater certainty to utilities and power suppliers entering into wholesale power contracts, while at the same time hopefully slashing the amount of litigation that has arisen from those contracts, FERC last Wednesday issued a proposed policy statement that would set a standard of review that must be met in order to justify proposed changes to market-based rate contracts for wholesale sales of electric energy by utilities.

Due to sharply rising oil prices, strong 30-day contract prices for May and a greater than expected fall-off in natural gas production during the first quarter 2002, Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll said the firm is raising its 2002/2003 natural gas price forecasts by $0.25 and $0.50 to $3.00 and $3.50 per MMBtu, respectively.

While the energy market sailed on past foundering Enron with barely a ripple, that would not have been the case if the major marketer’s implosion had occurred a year earlier during a time of rising energy prices, the chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission told a congressional committee Wednesday.

All of the lessons of how the nation positively benefited from the successful restructuring of the nation’s natural gas markets, from greater investment in energy infrastructure to innovation, are being lost in the shuffle as the electric utility industry continues to come to terms with its own march towards competition, FERC Commissioner Nora Brownell said last Tuesday. The end result? Consumers in the United States are being denied the opportunity to reap the fruits of new technologies that come with the evolution of markets, she argued.

The financial nightmare at Enron Corp. underscores the need for increased oversight of auditors, as well as the need for greater autonomy and objectivity by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), financial analysts, corporate auditing committees and company boards of directors, former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. told a Senate hearing last Thursday.

The financial debacle at Enron Corp. underscores the need for increased oversight of auditors, as well as the need for greater autonomy and objectivity by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), financial analysts, corporate auditing committees and company boards of directors, former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. told a Senate hearing Thursday.

As the United States faces greater uncertainty from the Middle East in meeting its growing fuel demands, U.S. Ambassador Paul Celluci said that the country will rely even more on Canada to meet its “growing thirst” for oil, natural gas and electricity. Celluci’s comments followed claims this week by Alberta that it is winning more support from the energy industry to serve as a hub for “any” gas pipelines from the Arctic.

As the United States faces greater uncertainty from the Middle East in meeting its growing fuel demands, U.S. Ambassador Paul Celluci said that the country will rely even more on Canada to meet its “growing thirst” for oil, natural gas and electricity. Celluci’s comments followed claims this week by Alberta that it is winning more support from the energy industry to serve as a hub for “any” gas pipelines from the Arctic.