Operations

Transco reported being notified that the North Terrebonne Gas Processing Plant in South Louisiana was able to resume operations over the weekend. The plant had shut down May 10 due to a propane leak on the suction side of one of the refrigeration compressors. Its operators indicated to Transco “that restart of the plant was delayed due to problems encountered in starting up the plant’s other refrigeration compressor. We are still experiencing some problems with this compressor. As a result of the plant’s restart, delivery points on Transco will see a cutback in the recent buildup of Btu content that started when the plant went down.

Austin-based Southern Union Co. has named David W. Stevens as executive vice-president of utility operations and Dennis K. Morgan as executive vice-president of administration. The company said Stevens will be responsible for overseeing the company’s natural gas operating divisions: Southern Union Gas, Missouri Gas Energy, Atlantic Utilities, PG Energy, and New England. In addition, Stevens will oversee the customer service, engineering and gas supply departments. Stevens is currently the president of Southern Union Gas. Morgan will be responsible for overseeing a broad range of corporate administrative functions, including legal, human resources, risk, environmental matters, and corporate communications. Southern Union is an international energy distribution company serving nearly 1.6 million customers in Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida and Mexico.

Carrying through on an earlier commitment to ramp up its Deep Panuke operations, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. has formed a partnership with Norwegian-based Ocean Rig ASA, which is expected to bring its deep-water drilling expertise to the Canadian East Coast. PanCanadian estimates that 1 Tcf of recoverable natural gas may be stored there at depths of more than 5,000 feet offshore Nova Scotia.

Carrying through on an earlier commitment to ramp up its Deep Panuke operations, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. has formed a partnership with Norwegian-based Ocean Rig ASA, which is expected to bring its deep-water drilling expertise to the Canadian East Coast. PanCanadian estimates that 1 Tcf of recoverable natural gas may be stored there at depths of more than 5,000 feet offshore Nova Scotia.

Calgary-based Elk Point Resources Inc. increased its core area of operations this week, agreeing to pay C$24.8 million to purchase some natural gas and light crude oil assets in the Pembina, Easyford and Bigoray areas of Alberta. Current net production from the properties is approximately 2.9 MMcf/d, 385 bbl/d of light crude oil and 55 bbl/d of natural gas liquids — 730 boe/d total.

Nervous time returned to Pacific Gas & Electric’s naturalgas operations Tuesday, as it was trying desperately to get morethan two dozen mostly reluctant suppliers to sign contractextensions of up to 90 days using a new state regulatory-backedsecuritization of the utility’s retail gas revenues to assurefuture payments to the suppliers.

Upon completion of its much awaited drilling operations at itsdeepwater exploration well on the Dana Point prospect in the Gulfof Mexico, Unocal Corp. announced that its $36 million investmentin the $51 million well drilling project produced nothing but a dryhole.

Edison International has eliminated its fourth quarter dividendand subsidiary Southern California Edison has dropped $100 millionin electric system operations and maintenance investments affecting400 jobs to help ease its financial crisis.

“Unprecedented demand” for gas pushed Questar’s storage,transportation and distribution system to the limit in November,the company said last week. The Salt Lake City-based LDC was forcedto curtail service to some industrial customers during the month tomaintain deliveries to residential customers.