Likened

Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last week likenedthe power industry to an old jalopy in desperate need of repair.

Department of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson likened the powerindustry to an old jalopy in desperate need of repair yesterday atan energy conference in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the NationalEnergy Marketers Association. He expressed concern that Congresshas not been too interested in moving power restructuringlegislation and said if legislation isn’t completed soon there willbe dire consequences. “My main message is that unless there isrestructuring soon there are going to be power outages in thiscountry,” Richardson said.

PanCanadian Petroleum subsidiary PanCanadian Gulf of MexicoInc., made a deep-water oil and gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexicothat it likened to Shell’s prolific Auger Field. The Llanodiscovery well, in Garden Banks Block 386 about 137 miles offshoreLouisiana, drilled to a record depth for the Gulf of 27,864 feet.The sands at Llano correlate closely to similar sands encounteredby Shell Deepwater Development in the Auger Field, less than 15miles to the southwest, containing a reported 220 million barrelsof oil equivalent reserves. Auger has reported reserves of 220million Boe with approximate production of 100,000 barrels of oiland 300 MMcf of gas per day.