Pleading

A California-based oil and natural gas company was fined $450,000 and sentenced to a five-year probationary period after pleading guilty to one felony count of operating a pipeline offshore Southern California that the Interior Department previously determined was unfit for service, federal authorities said last Monday.

A California-based oil and natural gas company was fined $450,000 and sentenced to a five-year probationary period after pleading guilty to one felony count of operating a pipe offshore Southern California that the Interior Department earlier had determined to be unsuitable for service, federal authorities said Monday.

Legendary Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison after pleading guilty in October to paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s energy regime in exchange for oil contracts in 2001 (see NGI, Oct. 8). Wyatt had faced up to 24 months in prison. Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued the sentence. Wyatt had earlier agreed to forfeit $11 million as part of his plea agreement. Wyatt pleaded guilty in October four weeks into a criminal trial and shortly before prosecutors were to complete their case. Wyatt, who founded Coastal Corp., which later merged with El Paso Corp. (see NGI, May 8, 2000),was indicted in late 2005 with five other individuals. He had faced up to 70 years in prison if he had been convicted on all five counts of his indictment. Wyatt had also been charged with conducting financial transactions with Iraq, which was an enemy nation in 2001, and for violating a U.S. embargo with Iraq.

Legendary Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt, 83, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty in October to paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s energy regime in exchange for oil contracts in 2001 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 2). Wyatt had faced up to 24 months in prison.

Despite new bouts of colder weather approaching in some areas and pipelines reintroducing OFO-like actions or pleading for shippers to stay in balance, prices softened Monday at a large majority of points. Strong increases at New England citygates (handily topped by Iroquois Zone 2’s $2.75 gain) and smaller ones at a couple of other scattered points ran against the grain of overall declines ranging from about a nickel to 40 cents.

While pleading limited resources and the need to determine who pays for helping needy customers this winter in the face of rapidly escalating natural gas prices, a Sempra Energy senior utility executive told state regulators that the company’s Southern California Gas utility is considering tapping up to 5 Bcf of its cushion gas supplies in its extensive underground storage system as a means of tempering expected high winter gas utility bills for qualifying low-income customers.

A California state appeals court denied Sempra Energy’s latest pleading last week, sending a $24 billion anti-trust class action lawsuit to trial next year, the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case announced Monday. The plaintiffs anticipate a trial date will be scheduled to begin next summer regarding their charges of “cartel-like behavior” and collusion in the wholesale natural gas markets.

A large collection of generators is pleading with FERC to act quickly on a series of complaints filed against them by Nevada Power, Sierra Pacific Power and Southern California Water Co. last year that asked the Commission to retroactively mitigate prices included in contracts entered into between the utilities and power sellers in 2000 and 2001.

Traders who had been pleading for more market volatility duringa long period of relatively little price movement got it in spadesMonday-at least the ones who deal in eastern markets did. Numbersin the East rose by anywhere from 10 to 20 cents, with many pointsup by 15 cents or more. Western increases were considerably moresubdued; many were only a nickel or so, with San Juan Basin’suptick of about a dime leading the region.