Larry

After 26 years of service, Energy West CEO and president Larry Geske announced he would not stand for re-election to the Great Falls, MT-based company’s board of directors and will retire in November. Geske said he plans to focus his time on personal and community projects. Edward Bernica, COO and CFO, has been appointed president and CEO effective immediately. Bernica has been CFO for five years and COO for two years. During Geske’s tenure, Energy West grew from a utility serving Great Falls to a company now serving customers throughout the inter-mountain west with natural gas, propane and electricity.

Devon Energy Corp. CEO J. Larry Nichols said Tuesday that it would have been “difficult, if not impossible” to get the type of acreage in Canada that Anderson Exploration Ltd. already held, and that was the main reason the Oklahoma City-based producer tried for months to acquire the company. Now that Anderson has agreed to be acquired for $4.6 billion, Devon is expected to become the leading North American independent, a post currently held by Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Nymex Chairman Daniel Rappaport last week sent a letter to Rep.Larry Combest, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture,raising concern over a subsection of H.R. 4541, the “CommodityFutures Modernization Act of 2000,” which would exempt electronicenergy derivatives trading from regulatory oversight.

The full Senate passed by unanimous consent a stand-aloneelectric reliability bill late last week, while House CommerceCommittee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-VA) moved ahead full throttlewith plans to mark up a comprehensive power bill and bring it tothe House floor before the end of July.

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-ID) said last week he plans to supporthis long-time energy aide, Nils Johnson, to succeed formerCommissioner Vicky Bailey at the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission.

Oneok Inc. CEO Larry Brummett and Oklahoma CorporationCommission (OCC) Chairman Bob Anthony sparred last week overwhether a 1993 gas purchase contract of Oneok subsidiary OklahomaNatural Gas (ONG) has been found to be fair to ratepayers. Asthings stood Friday, Anthony was all but calling for aninvestigation of the contract.

Oneok Inc. CEO Larry Brummett told the Oklahoma CorporationCommission (OCC) that rumors and allegations about a 1993 gaspurchase contract may jeopardize the planned merger of Oneok andLas Vegas-based Southwest Gas.

Larry Bickle, John Strom and Chris Jones, the three founders ofTPC Corp. (formerly Tejas Power Corp., which was sold to PacifiCorpin April of last year) haven’t lost sight of their goal ofdeveloping a large network of new high-deliverability storage hubs.But in contrast to TPC, Western Hub Properties LLC (WHP), their newcompany formed in April, plans to focus on the West rather thanbuilding projects in the eastern U.S.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) confirmed last week that he has sought”some information” from FERC on its natural gas policy optionspaper, saying he was especially concerned that certain proposalscould lead to re-regulation of the gas industry.