Least

The Eastern Gulf of Mexico Sale 181, which covers an area about 64 miles offshore Louisiana, 15 miles offshore Alabama and at least 100 miles offshore Florida, is still on track for December, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said this week — even though her boss President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have voiced opposition to opening up Florida’s coast for drilling.

Pacific Gas & Electric extended a systemwide Stage 3high-inventory OFO through at least today, but loosened thetolerance for positive daily imbalances from 1% to 3%. The utilitycontinued to project linepack rising well above its maximum targetlevels through Saturday.

Backed up with a C$1 billion investment to recover at least 1Tcf, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. said it would immediately begincommercial development on its Deep Panuke offshore natural gasfield. Located about 250 kilometers southeast of Halifax, plateausales production from the field is expected to be 400 MMcf/dfollowing startup in early 2005.

El Paso extended through at least Thursday an UnauthorizedOverpull Penalty alert it had declared Wednesday afternoon due tolow linepack. Overpulls on the South Mainline prompted El Paso topostpone the annual maintenance shutdown of its Keystone MainlineStation (Winkler County, TX), which had previously been scheduledto start today in conjunction with smart pigging of the downstreamLine 1103, until Saturday. The work will last through Monday andcause the shut-in of 400 MMcf/d at 37 receipt points in thevicinity.

Backed up with a C$1 billion investment to recover at least 1Tcf, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. said it would immediately begincommercial development on its Deep Panuke offshore natural gasfield. Located about 250 kilometers southeast of Halifax, plateausales production from the field is expected to be 400 MMcf/dfollowing startup in early 2005.

The shakeout in the battle between online energy tradingexchanges has begun, with rumors circulating that at least two ofthe well marketed, visible performers have run out of money and noware scrambling for customers and liquidity. Though no companieshave publicly announced plans to close or merge, insiders say it’sjust a matter of time.

The shakeout in the battle between online energy tradingexchanges has begun, with rumors circulating that at least two ofthe well marketed, visible performers have run out of money and noware scrambling for customers and liquidity. Though no companieshave publicly announced plans to close or merge, insiders say it’sjust a matter of time.

Weather remained cold Tuesday over most of the East, butpredictions of at least a moderate warming trend developing and ahuge plunge in futures were enough to spur the cash market to makea steep descent of its own. Dollar-plus declines were common.Transco Zone 6 (NYC) fell nearly 20 dollars, yet still reigned asthe costliest price point with an average of more than $18.

While major pipeline capacity additions for the Californiamarket will take at least two years, Transwestern Pipelinecurrently is looking at modifications that could contribute about50 MMcf/d “as early as next fall,” according to Enron PipelineGroup President Stan Horton.