Offers

Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week gave up his quest to piggyback the broad energy measure to another legislative vehicle. Instead, he offered the energy measure (now S. 2095) as separate legislation on Thursday.

Junior independent Tengasco Inc., which has cited frustration with its primary lender to finance more wells in its core production areas of Tennessee and Kansas, on Monday filed an amended stock offering to its existing shareholders to reduce its debt and build working capital. The Knoxville, TN-based producer’s original offering was made in mid-October.

The staff of Vice President Dick Cheney submitted a proposal Tuesday to the House and Senate tax writers that seeks to resolve the outstanding tax items that have halted progress on comprehensive energy legislation over the past weeks, according to a Republican aide. At press time, the details of the proposal were not known, and the tax writers had not yet responded.

FERC last week approved the general concepts of a market design proposal previously filed at the agency by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and moved to provided additional guidance to the electric grid operator.

House-Senate Republican negotiators championed more deep-water natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, faster permitting for producers, an inventory of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas resources, accelerated development of gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and construction of an Alaska pipeline in “discussion drafts” of comprehensive energy legislation released last week. They also called for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to be opened to oil and gas drilling.

FERC should put off finalizing its proposed rules on price reporting to publications until it has a chance to evaluate how well its voluntary guidelines are succeeding, producers said in comments filed Monday (RM03-10). If the Commission does proceed with its proposed amendments to blanket certificates, it needs to refine its definitions of prohibited behavior, producers and others said.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. officials offered no comment to rumors that the huge independent may be for sale, but a report Friday in a London publication suggested that Royal Dutch/Shell Group may be considering a $10 billion bid for the company. Shell has played bridesmaid in attempts for the past few years to capture other gas-rich North American independents, but none were as large or as formidable as the world-class producer.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. officials offered no comment to rumors that the huge independent may be for sale, but a report Friday in a London publication suggested that Royal Dutch/Shell Group may be considering a $10 billion bid for the company. Shell has played bridesmaid in attempts for the past few years to capture other gas-rich North American independents, but none were as large or as formidable as the world-class producer.

Skipping Stone, a Houston consulting firm, has offered its solution to the natural gas pricing and index issue. It advocates the creation of a non-profit data aggregator, The Energy Transaction Repository (ETR), to collect transaction data from market participants and provide services to match, verify and confirm the transactions.