Pulling

Culminating a week of progress in pulling together the financing underpinning of its exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Friday announced it intends to offer $6.7 billion in first mortgage bonds to help pay credit claims in its $12 billion utility bankruptcy, the largest in U. S. history. This followed announcement earlier in the week that the utility secured $2.9 billion in credit facility commitments and authorization from California state regulators for its new financial structure.

Restructuring efforts blasted Dynegy Inc.’s bottom line last year, with the company reporting a net loss of $364 million, including a loss of $226 million in the fourth quarter. The losses, while smaller, are expected to continue through this year as rebuilding continues, the CEO said Thursday.

Murphy Oil Corp., which announced last month that it is pulling out of Western Canada to concentrate on more deepwater development, on Tuesday cut 15% off of this year’s capital budget compared with 2003. Nearly 77% of the $843 million budget will be allocated to the upstream.

It’s now or never, and it’s not just the energy industry that’s pulling out all the stops to push a national energy policy through the Congress. Unnatural allies, business and labor, joined the rally with a press briefing Wednesday, the day before debate is scheduled to begin and a comprehensive energy bill, H.R. 6 is expected to emerge from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

After pulling the plug in two previous attempts, the third time proved a charm for Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG), which last week said it will build a new natural gas pipeline to serve the Rocky Mountain region after receiving long-term contracts for the full capacity of the 400-mile-long project. Service is scheduled to begin by mid-2005.

After pulling the plug in two previous attempts, the third time proved a charm for Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG), which will build a new natural gas pipeline to serve the Rocky Mountain region after receiving long-term contracts for the full capacity of the 400-mile-long project. Service is scheduled to begin by mid-2005.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s international unit was busy Thursday pushing and pulling in Latin America, trying to make things happen in its aggressive game plan south of the border.

Barring an unforeseen loss of equipment, the Northeast — having recently fought off broiling temperatures and soaring demands for electricity — should be able to successfully make it through the rest of this summer, according to Tim Gallagher, manager of technical services at the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).

Although none of the major merchant generators in Californiawill talk about pulling back from the nation’s largest electricitymarket, they are not happy with some of the proposals that haverecently landed in the federal regulators’ lap advocating pricecaps and cost-based ratemaking, at least for interim periods.Several generators noted this week they are watching the situationclosely and intend to be heard at the federal level as well asamong the California energy policymakers.