Owed

Burlington Resources Inc., a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, agreed to pay the federal government $97.5 million to resolve claims that it underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday.

Cash prices saw a major resurgence Monday that owed more to screen strength Friday and Monday and new tropical disturbance activity than it did to weather-related fundamentals. Northeast citygates were pushing above $10 again amid overall gains ranging from about a quarter to nearly 80 cents.

An arbitration panel has ruled that Dynegy Inc. must pay $10.4 million in severance pay to former president and COO Steve Bergstrom, who resigned in October 2002. Bergstrom, at one time considered a top candidate to assume the role of CEO, resigned in October 2002 after the company restructured and closed its energy marketing and trading unit (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2002).

Enron Corp. offered some good news to former employees awaiting payment for business expenses, unused vacation and health claims. It said Friday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York, which is handling its case, will allow it to make payments to former employees, and said it was “now in the process of calculating vacation payments for former employees and anticipates that it will make payment by late February 2002.” The court has approved payment for unused vacation days subject to the $15,000 cap and also has authorized full payment of pre and post-petition expense reports and health benefits, subject to Enron’s regular approval policies.