Pacific

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a high inventory Stage 1 OFOfor today with 3% tolerance for positive imbalances.

In outlining his company’s strategy for this year, Union PacificResource’s CEO George Lindahl III said it will continue to focus ononshore North America plays. The company, he said, has budgeted$750 million for capital spending in 2000, including $100 millionfor property purchases. This budget should enable UPR to stabilizeproduction volumes by the middle of the year and increase volumesin the second half, while replacing over 100 percent of producedreserves. UPR also intends to continue the trend of increaseddrilling activity. Twenty-five rigs are now running in the U.S.,compared to 11 at this time last year and 17 at the end of 1999.Drilling in Canada has also picked up, with 11 rigs running today,compared to 13 in March of 1999 and four at year-end. Lindahlfocused on three specific areas that will be vital for thecompany’s growth: the Frontier play in southeast Wyoming’s GreenRiver Basin, South Louisiana’s Etouffee discovery and the Kluawells in British Columbia. “Our exploration activity in Wyoming,south Louisiana and British Columbia shows that we are making goodon our strategy, which is to find and produce natural gasopportunities onshore North America,” Lindahl said. “Our rig countshould continue to increase during the year. Development drillingis one of our strengths and we are hard at it onshore NorthAmerica, in the Gulf of Mexico and in Latin America..We believethat we are off to a good start to delivering value in 2000.”

With a relative whimper, not a bang, a major rate case forPacific Gas and Electric Co. ended last Thursday with Californiaregulators on a 3-2 vote giving the utility about one-third of whatit originally requested. The raise still is quite large, however,at $229 million/annually, including a 6% hike in gas rates. Thehike amounts to about another $20/year for the typical residentialcustomer. Electric rates were hiked by $136 million/year, but therewill be no change in those rates because of the ongoing rate freezethat’s been in effect since 1996 as part of the state’s electricindustry restructuring.

With a relative whimper, not a bang, a major rate case forPacific Gas and Electric Co. ended last Thursday with Californiaregulators on a 3-2 vote giving the utility about one-third what itoriginally requested. The raise still is quite large, however, at$229 million/annually, including a 6% hike in gas rates. The hikeamounts to about another $20/year for the typical residentialcustomer. Electric rates were hiked by $136 million/year, but therewill be no change in those rates because of the ongoing rate freezethat’s been in effect since 1996 as part of the state’s electricindustry restructuring.

Pacific Gas & Electric lifted a high-inventory OFO that hadbeen in effect for Friday only. All cold weather-related pipelineOFOs issued in the last two weeks remained in effect going into theweekend.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy, the creation of a merger betweenPacific Enterprises and Enova in mid-1998, has announced avoluntary job cut plan seeking a net reduction of about 275positions, or about 2.5% of its overall work force. The majority ofthe job eliminations will be rolled out in January and will targetmanagement and administrative support jobs at Sempra’s corporateheadquarters and in its two California utilities, SouthernCalifornia Gas and San Diego Gas and Electric.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy, the creation of a merger betweenPacific Enterprises and Enova in mid-1998, has announced avoluntary job cut plan seeking a net reduction of about 275positions, or about 2.5% of its overall work force. The majority ofthe job eliminations will be rolled out in January focusing onmanagement and administrative support jobs at Sempra’s corporateheadquarters and in its two California utilities, SouthernCalifornia Gas and San Diego Gas and Electric.

Pacific Gas & Electric said Friday it was working to resolveproblems with the OFO/EFO Outlook and System Inventory Status linkson its Pipe Ranger web site, hoping to restore them to operationSunday. Meanwhile, the utility assured shippers that no OFO hadbeen called for Saturday.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFObeyond Friday.