Players

One of the bit players in the Enron Corp. melodrama was sentenced to two years probation last week for filing false income tax returns. Lawrence Lawyer, 38, who had once worked for Enron Broadband Services, faced up to three years in prison for failing to report $79,469 to the Internal Revenue Service. Lawyer reportedly received the money over four years beginning in 1997 from ex-Enron executive Michael Kopper in what the prosecutors had called a kickback scheme related to RADR, one of Enron’s dubious special purpose entities.

One of the bit players in the Enron Corp. melodrama was sentenced to two years probation on Monday for filing false income tax returns. Lawrence Lawyer, 38, who had once worked for Enron Broadband Services, faced up to three years in prison for failing to report $79,469 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Peeling back some of the underlying impacts on first quarter results among Western energy sector players this month, high wholesale natural gas prices play a part in just about all of them as found in the varying levels of success among several companies this week.

Houston-based EnerSea Transport LLC, a player claiming a technological advantage in the budding compressed natural gas (CNG) oceanic transportation and storage business, announced Tuesday it was forming a strategic partnership with Tanker Pacific in the development of what EnerSea envisions as a portfolio of niche natural gas transportation and storage projects that can both complement and compete with liquefied natural gas (LNG).

An initial trio of first quarter earnings reports Wednesday from Western energy players were mixed, but mostly upbeat, with Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp. leading the positive news with a 56% jump in earnings. Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy reported increased earnings quarter-over-quarter, and Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. saw first-quarter profits dip, compared to the same period in 2003, although its core utility business showed improved profits.

The fire sale price levels for power generation assets in the U.S. has drawn another set of players into the increasingly crowded field bidding for power plants. Carl Icahn and Panda Energy International last Wednesday said that their affiliated companies have signed a joint venture agreement to co-fund Panda Acquisitions Group, which will actively seek to purchase U.S. energy assets and related infrastructure.

The National Energy Board (NEB) will be gathering information from key gas industry players in the Maritimes region over the next few months in preparation for two public reports on the functioning of the Atlantic Canadian gas market. The board also plans to publishing data gathered for the reports on a monthly basis from gas export license holders. It will collect data on domestic and export prices through surveys and publish the results in an aggregate format.

The National Energy Board (NEB) will be gathering information from key gas industry players in the Maritimes region over the next few months in preparation for two public reports on the functioning of the Atlantic Canadian gas market. The board also plans to publishing data gathered for the reports on a monthly basis from gas export license holders. It will collect data on domestic and export prices through surveys and publish the results in an aggregate format.

Ontario Energy Trading International Corp. and the Ontario independent electricity market operator (IMO) are fighting back against charges made by Consumers Energy Co. that the IMO is failing to offer participants in the province’s newly deregulated electricity market open access transmission service on a comparable, non-discriminatory basis.