Manager

Former Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line General Manager Gary D. Lauderdale has joined Houston-based consulting firm Lukens Energy Group as a managing director in the firm’s Strategy Advisory practice area. Lauderdale recently retired from Williams Companies after more than 30 years of service. At Lukens, Lauderdale will offer consulting services related to the overall commercial and operational management of natural gas companies, including issues related to corporate strategy, post-merger integration, corporate downsizing, business process improvement, contract negotiation and dispute resolution. Jay Lukens, president of Lukens Energy Group, said Lauderdale will be “a key player as Lukens Energy Group helps the industry consider ‘what’s next?’ The energy industry is at a precarious point in its evolution. With the melt-down of merchant energy, high natural gas prices and concerns about future energy supplies, many companies are uncertain as to where to go from here.”

Vancouver-based KMS Power Income Fund, through its manager KMS Energy Inc., has announced a 10-month gas swap contract with Nicor Energy LLC, designed to fix prices for a proportion of the natural gas used by KMS Crossroads. The agreement, at a price of $5.07/MMBtu, encompasses 20,000 MMBtu/month, representing about 40% of the average gas consumption at KMS Crossroads.

On behalf of the Natural Gas Supply Association, Conoco GeneralManager Mike Johnson is scheduled today to recommend that thegovernment maintain a hands-off approach to the natural gas marketdespite concerns about a potential crisis from Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, Sen. CharlesE. Schumer (D-NY) and other lawmakers. Several congressmen andsenators have voiced concern recently about high prices, low storagelevels and rising demand (see Daily GPI, July 11).

With all the trajectory of a risk manager tethered to abungee-cord and thrust out of a Houston skyscraper, natural gasprices dove then rebounded Monday as traders digested fresh weatherforecasts.

Watertown Municipal Utilities chose Tenaska Marketing Venturesof Omaha, NB, to be its gas transportation and fuel manager for thenext five years. Watertown will buy about 8 Bcf of gas from Tenaskaover the contract term. The utility recently finished constructinga five-mile pipeline directly connecting it to Northern BorderPipeline. Previously, the utility moved gas on Northern Natural.Thecombined gas, electric and water utility serves about 20,000 innortheast South Dakota.

Jim Buccigross, regulatory division manager of Boston-basedenergy consulting firm Skipping Stone Inc., is the energyindustry’s first Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB)-certifiedreviewer. Through GISB, Buccigross has the authority to review andcertify that a company’s software meets crucial criteria thatsupports GISB-set standards.

Beverly Marshall, formerly a Washington representative forSouthern California Edison, has been named vice president andgeneral manager of federal government affairs for Duke Energy.

Terry Keane, former vice president of Smith International,Houston, has been named vice president and general manager of theGas Research Institute’s Exploration and Production Business Unitin Chicago.