Increase

As gas prices plummeted more than $5/MMBtu last week at the Southern California border, conservation, cool temperatures and more long-term contracts pressured power prices lower in the state to the point where generators “are having to compete for first time in months to sell us energy,” Ray Hart, deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said last Thursday.

Conservation, cool temperatures and more long term contracts have pressured power prices lower in California to the point where generators “are having to compete for first time in months to sell us energy,” Ray Hart, deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) said Thursday.

Canadian exporters got off to a spectacular start, piling up a 253% increase in revenues from sales to the United States during the first quarter of the current natural gas contract year. In Canadian dollars, the value of gas exports shot up to $11.6 billion during the three months that ended Jan. 31 compared to $3.28 billion in the same period of 1999-2000, according to records kept by the National Energy Board.

Canadian exporters got off to a spectacular start, piling up a 253% increase in revenues from sales to the United States during the first quarter of the current natural gas contract year. In Canadian dollars, the value of gas exports shot up to $11.6 billion during the three months that ended Jan. 31 compared to $3.28 billion in the same period of 1999-2000, according to records kept by the National Energy Board.

Friction is likely to increase between state and federal regulators on the issue of deregulation if states begin to block retail competition because of the crisis in California, according a new report issued last week by Andersen Consulting. The report, “Energy Crisis in the Western United States: Lessons for Navigating Regulatory and Market Minefields,” was unveiled by Andersen’s North American Energy Consulting Practice at a Washington, D.C. briefing.

Executives of companies looking to increase the use of small electric generation units known as microturbines last week sought to promote some of the nascent technology’s benefits, including a minimal amount of maintenance and the ability to make use of heat-generated energy that would otherwise go to waste.

Executives with companies looking to increase the use of small electric generation units known as microturbines yesterday sought to promote some of the nascent technology’s benefits, including a minimal amount of maintenance and the ability to make use of heat-generated energy that would otherwise go to waste.

Marathon Oil Co., which completed its acquisition of gasproducer Pennaco Energy Inc. earlier this month, expects toincrease its oil and gas production another 3% this year throughexploration and possible acquisitions, said CEO Clarence Cazalot.However, Cazalot was coy about whether parent company USX-MarathonGroup would spin off or sell its growing energy unit this year.

Chandeleur Pipe Line Co. has asked FERC for the go-ahead toincrease the capacity of its 12-inch mainline to 321 MMcf/d from280 MMcf/d. In an application filed Monday, the pipeline said itwas seeking the additional capacity to accommodate greaterproduction levels and a planned new interconnection with DestinPipeline Co. L.L.C., which is being built under the blanketconstruction certificates of both Destin and Chandeleur. Theinterconnection will serve a refinery in Pascagoula, MS, owned byChevron Products Co., an affiliate of Chandeleur’s. The pipelinenoted that it already has conducted an open season for the proposednew mainline capacity, and is in the process of completingprecedent agreements with shippers. The Chandeleur system — whichconsists of an 80-mile, 12-inch mainline; a parallel 82-mile,16-inch mainline; and an 11-mile, 12-inch lateral — extends fromoffshore Louisiana and Mississippi to onshore Mississippi. Inaddition to serving Chevron Products, Chandeleur hasinterconnections with Gulf South Pipeline and Texas EasternTransmission.