Paying

The industry scramble to find new gas supply sources should begin paying significant dividends as early as 2006, according to consultants at Arlington, VA-based Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA). By 2025, EVA sees the potential for 23.8-33.2 Bcf/d of additional gas supply coming from a wide variety of new sources.

As part of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, the court approved Pacific Gas and Electric paying $281 million of 6.25% first mortgage refunding bonds that mature Aug. 1. The PG&E Corp. utility will pay the bondholders from its current available cash, which totaled $3.49 billion on May 31, 2003.

Progress Energy’s subsidiary Progress Energy Ventures is paying $188 million in cash to Williams Energy Marketing and Trading to acquire a full-requirements, long-term power supply agreement with Jackson Electric Membership Corp., which is located in Jefferson, GA. Jackson is one of the largest electric cooperatives in the United States, serving more than 171,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 10 metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia counties.

Oil and natural gas producers, particularly independents, are paying a heavy price in a bonding market that has grown increasingly tight in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the major bankruptcies of Enron Corp. and K-Mart, six major producer groups told the Interior Department last week. They called on the agency to ease up on some of its bonding requirements for producers in light of market conditions.

Oil and gas producers, particularly independents, are paying a heavy price in a bonding market that has grown increasingly tight in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the bankruptcies of Enron Corp. and K-Mart, six major producer groups told the Interior Department Monday. They called on the agency to ease up on some of its bonding requirements for producers in light of market conditions.

Energy Transfer Co., a privately held Dallas-based company, is paying $265 million in cash for Aquila Inc.’s 50% ownership in the 600-mile Oasis natural gas pipeline system, as well as the company’s Southeast Texas and Mid-Continent pipeline systems, which include natural gas and gas liquids processing assets. In just a few months, Aquila has announced asset sales totaling $483 million.

Retail electric customers in Texas could end up paying hundreds of millions of dollars in inflated power rates because of industry influence on two Texas utility regulators, according to three lawsuits ongoing on behalf of a number of Texas cities.

Unlike their neighbors in regulated states, consumers are paying higher prices and receiving less service in electricity-restructured states, according to a report released Thursday by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA). The non-profit CFA, composed of 285 pro-consumer groups, reported that “policymakers now face the prospect that the costs of ensuring retail competition in electricity markets will greatly exceed any efficiency gains, so electricity prices will rise, not decline.”

As Californians continue to wrestle with their own staggering electricity and natural gas bills, they are probably unaware that they are also contributing millions of dollars to help people in other states pay their energy bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), according to analysts with Reston, VA-based Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc.(EMPA).