operators

In move that combines two leading California oil operators and achieves significant operational synergies, costs savings and cash flow benefits, Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) announced that it is buying Nuevo Energy Co. in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $945 million, including debt assumption, or about $28.05 per Nuevo share and $4.54/boe.

In the aftermath of the devastating August blackout that hit parts of Canada and the United States, top grid operator officials last week said that reliability coordinators must be able to order actions in real-time during emergency conditions and that this authority has to be clearly defined before problems crop up on the power grid.

Natural gas is playing an indirect, but clear role for the nation’s two largest wind power project developer/operators. They not only draw on some of the wholesale gas market’s volatility, but also on the location-scouting demands of underground gas storage facility development to find wind buyers and sites. One of the two companies is combining its wind and gas storage operations in one energy development business unit.

“It is imperative that operators take delivery of quantities that are scheduled immediately,” Kern River said in a Monday bulletin board notice noting that the pipeline was “operating with extremely high linepack due to excessive banking over the weekend.” It also encouraged the scheduling of due-customer imbalance paybacks on an as-available basis.

Noting that it is currently operating with “extremely low linepack,” Kern River said Tuesday it is imperative that operators do not take delivery of more quantities than are scheduled. If drafting continues to be a problem, the pipeline said, further action will be taken.

Power supplies in the Northeast and Southeast should be sufficient to meet projected demand this summer, grid operators and reliability councils in the two regions reported last week, although New England is keeping a close eye on parts of Connecticut and Vermont due to the inability of transmission lines in those areas to carry enough power to meet local demand and transmission line outages.

FERC last Thursday took up the issue of whether merchant transmission operators have an obligation to expand their facilities under Order 888 and found that in the case of participants in an underwater transmission cable stretching from Long Island to Connecticut such an obligation does not apply.

Power grid operators across the Northeast, Midwest, Mid Atlantic and Ontario sent out power shortage warnings and calls for conservation again last Wednesday, as the early summer heat continued to bake the regions with 90-100 degree temperatures and high humidity, driving up power usage and prices.

The Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO) of Ontario is soliciting bids for a “Multi-Region Natural Gas Infrastructure Study” covering the northeastern United States and Canada. IMO is coordinating the study on behalf of six other entities, including the New York ISO, PJM Interconnection, ISO New England, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council and the North American Electric Reliability Council.