Implement

In the absence of any definitive regulatory or legislative moves as yet to implement a three-week-old memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the governor, Southern California Edison officials Tuesday acknowledged that creditors and other parts of the financial community are afraid the utility will join the state’s other major investor-owned utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, in bankruptcy court.

A proposed new law to implement sections of the governor’s agreement (MOU) with Southern California Edison Co. will be offered later this week in the ongoing special session of the state legislature, Edison senior vice president Bob Foster said Tuesday in a regular conference call with utility bondholders. Foster characterized the state lawmakers’ attitude as “cautious,” but noted there is “no outright rejection” of the Edison MOU, which requires a state law to authorize California to buy the utility’s transmission assets and assign a portion of its rates to pay for state-backed bonds.

California regulators Tuesday took several steps to implement higher electricity rates and stepped up load management, assure payment to the state’s wholesale power buying program and examine whether the parent corporations for the three largest investor-owned utilities have done enough to assure their financial viability during the persistent crisis surrounding supplies and prices.

Sonat said it planned to implement an OFO Type 3 for sevendelivery groups Sunday and was anticipating it would beallocating/limiting interruptible capacity for the ChattanoogaGroup and North Alabama Group until further notice. Based onweather forecasts and projected demand, it is likely that the OFOand allocations will remain in effect through at least the end oftoday’s gas day, the pipeline said Friday. Nine groups on Sonat’sSouth Georgia system became subject to an OFO Type 22 Sunday.

CMS Energy Corp. announced it intends to implement a programthat will strengthen its balance sheet while maintaining itsforecasted earnings per share for 2001. The company also plans toretain the goal of a 10% per year growth rate thereafter.

CMS Energy Corp. announced it intends to implement a programthat will strengthen its balance sheet while maintaining itsforecasted earnings per share for 2001. The company also plans toretain the goal of a 10% per year growth rate thereafter.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and Landmark Graphics Corp. agreedyesterday to jointly market and implement capital allocation andperformance management software applications for the oil and gasindustry. The agreement will provide the oil and gas industry withautomated tracking services, and the ability to better manageshareholder value and related information. “With the globallandscape of oil and gas companies in continuous change, we areextremely excited about the opportunities our work with LandmarkGraphics will bring to the industry,” said Michael Olszewski,consulting managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers NorthAmerican Petroleum Practice. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Energy& Mining Group serves more than 3,000 oil and gas companiesworldwide with problem solving and risk management. Landmark, awholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Co., supplies integratedE&P technical and economic software and services for the oiland gas industry. Both are headquartered in Houston.

Atlanta Gas Light Co. (AGLC) launched a pilot program inQuitman, GA, to help the city develop and implement a structuredprocess to enhance its 33-mile gas operating system. Quitman, acity of approximately 5,300 in Brooks County near Valdosta insoutheast Georgia, is not served by AGLC. Service, during the testperiod, is scheduled to begin May 1. AGLC will provide operationsmaintenance support, corrosion control, development of a workmanagement plan, and gas accountability. AGLC also will develop andmanage a compliance inspection plan, including an initial corrosionevaluation. AGLC inspected Quitman’s operations in February.

Citing high storage inventories and declining injectioncapabilities related to high field pressures, CIG will implement anOFO taking effect today until further notice for all firmtransportation and storage customers. To relieve a “criticaloperational situation,” CIG is limiting No-Notice Transportation(NNT-1 and NNT-2) customers to an injection maximum of 1/250th oftheir contractual Maximum Available Capacity. Shippers with storageinventory exceeding MAC should initiate withdrawals to get withintheir allowable limits, the pipeline said. Although interruptiblestorage customers (IS-1) were not specifically part of the OFO,they were notified that injections are not available. In additionto the storage situation, CIG said, excessive positive imbalanceson FT contracts are threatening system integrity.