Participating

A federal grand jury in Denver last Tuesday indicted a Eunice, NM-based construction company and two of its executives for participating in a bid-rigging conspiracy involving natural gas pipeline construction projects in Colorado. The company is the second pipeline contractor to be indicted for bid rigging in less than a year.

A federal grand jury in Denver Tuesday indicted a Eunice, NM-based construction company and two of its executives for participating in a bid-rigging conspiracy involving natural gas pipeline construction projects in Colorado. The company is the second pipeline contractor to be indicted for bid rigging in less than a year.

Duke Energy Trading and Marketing has agreed to pay $550,000 to settle charges of energy market manipulation, including participating in a variety of trading and power transportation schemes during the California’s 2000-2001 electricity crisis. The agreement was approved last Monday by an administration law judge with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Tractebel LNG North America LLC, the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the United States, and Oslo, Norway-based Bergesen, one of the world’s leading shipping companies, announced Tuesday the launch of a new 138,000 cubic meter LNG vessel that will begin making deliveries for Tractebel under an exclusive, long-term charter.

The difficulty in determining savings from switching to another supplier can be the primary reason for not participating in customer choice programs. But a new handy calculator on the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) web site (www.pickocc.org) makes the math easy for residential customers. The interactive calculator helps consumers compare rates of natural gas suppliers to their current natural gas company. Consumers enter the current rate of a natural gas supplier in the calculator, their county sales tax and their monthly natural gas usage to receive a side-by-side comparison of what their monthly natural gas bill would be if they chose a supplier versus staying with their gas utility. “Ohio consumers deserve easy to use resources to assist them in making educated utility choices,” said Robert S. Tongren, Consumers’ Counsel. “This new tool will aid consumers in calculating potential savings based on their natural gas usage and suppliers’ offers.” Three of Ohio’s natural gas utilities have offered natural gas choice programs since 1997: Cincinnati Gas & Electric, Columbia Gas of Ohio and Dominion East Ohio. About 38% of those companies’ eligible customers have participated by choosing an alternative gas supplier. Gas choice is being offered this winter for the first time for Dayton area customers of Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio.

Irving, TX-based Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. is participating in seven new oil and gas discoveries on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the Gulf of Mexico. The company estimates that initial production rates from these discoveries should be approximately 30 MMcfe/d net when production begins. Magnum Hunter’s current production from the Gulf is approximately 53 MMcfe/d. Once the company completes some onshore divestitures of non-core assets, total company-wide production (including onshore) will be about 210 MMcfe/d. The discoveries include South Timbalier 264, with estimated first production in the third quarter. First production is expected to begin early next year for three other discoveries, West Cameron 347 and 426 and East Cameron 377. Those starting up in mid-2003 are Eugene Island 299 and 355. Eight prospects currently drilling or scheduled to spud by year-end have potential reserves of more than 550 Bcfe gross, or approximately 60 Bcfe net to Magnum Hunter. Since initiating an exploration program in the Gulf in May 1999, Magnum Hunter has developed an inventory of 135 OCS Blocks (634,000 gross acres) and has maintained an 86% drilling success rate with 45 out of 52 wells drilled to date.

Summing up its results for 2001, online energy trading company, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), said by the end of 2001 the number of participating firms and users on ICE both increased by more than 400%. In addition, the company said that the number of trades executed on ICE grew 15 fold over that same period during 2000.

Throwing in the towel on its natural gas choice pilot program after five years of service, Wisconsin Gas Co. (WGC) notified a total of 3,485 customers who were participating in the program that beginning Oct. 31 they would once again have to purchase their gas supply from their utility, WGC.

Columbia Gas of Ohio said customers participating in itscustomer choice program have saved $11.8 million-an average ofabout 10% off monthly gas bills-since Columbia introduced theprogram in the Toledo area in April 1997 and expanded it to allcustomers last August. Customers have saved nearly $3 million sincethe expansion.