Reach

If the staff of the Senate Energy and Natural ResourcesCommittee fails to reach agreement today on two contentious areasin electricity restructuring — the extent of FERC jurisdictionover interstate transmission and whether to include a renewableportfolio standard — the Democratic and Republican committeeleaders, may drop efforts to pass a comprehensive bill this year infavor of a stripped-down measure addressing reliability.

Expanding its potential reach as a merchant power plantdeveloper/operator, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. announced itis going after the high-tech and telecommunications industries’growing need for reliable, high-quality electricity by offeringdistributed generation with back-up reliability services. It has a30-MW unit about to be unveiled for an undisclosed customer andseveral other units in the queue, according to the Calpineexecutive heading its new “c*Power” business unit.

A strong performance by Aquila Energy during the first quarterhelped UtiliCorp United earnings reach a record level. UtiliCorpearnings available for common shares were $54.4 million, comparedto $51.9 million in 1Q99.

What a difference a day can make. Just 27 hours after testingkey support at $2.81, natural gas futures staged a completeturnaround, rallying to its highest daily continuation chartsettlement price this year. Nearly non-existent fundamental factorsgave traders little choice but to rely again on technical tradingtools for price direction. After the May contract posted animpressive gap higher open, that direction was in little doubt. Theprompt contract finished up 6.8 cents at $2.956, just a fraction ofa cent off its $2.96 high and within a nickel of its $3.005all-time high.

Gulf Midstream Services (GMS), a partnership between KeySpanEnergy Development Co. (KEDC) and Gulf Canada Resources, enlargedits Canadian midstream presence yesterday by announcing anagreement to buy Barrington Petroleum’s 38% interest in the PaddleRiver gas plant and related gas gathering systems. The $9 millionpurchase gives the partnership 76% interest of the only plant thatwill be directly connected to both the ATCO Pipeline system and theAlliance Pipeline.

Seeking to add gas sales volumes and expand the reach of its marketing operations, Aquila Energy announced last week the purchase of U.S. Gas Transportation (USGT) for an undisclosed price. Both companies expect the deal to close by the end of the month.

A sample of energy industry experts attending the Dain RauscherWessels Energy Conference expects prices to strengthen toward theend of this year, only to give way to general price weakness in2000. Many of the 146 people polled at the conference said theyexpected gas prices to surge towards $3.10 before the end of thisyear, then fall to the $2.50 level in early next year. Overall, 800energy industry experts, company representatives, institutionalinvestors and securities analysts attended the four-day conference,which ended yesterday.

Oil and gas production from offshore Atlantic Canada could reachabout 500,000 Boe/d if, as key operators in the region predict, anew development project begins every two or three years throughoutthe next two decades, according to “Harnessing the Potential -Atlantic Canada’s Oil and Gas Industry.”

BP Amoco and the Williams Cos. announced last week they have reached a partial settlement with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, while leaving the key issues of their dispute to be determined in an upcoming Supreme Court case. The settlement released Williams and BP Amoco from all claims included in the Southern Utes’ lawsuit against them but did not address key ownership issues.