Record

Record rainfall in parts of central and southern Saskatchewanhas put a damper on construction of the $3 billion, 1.325 Bcf/dAlliance Pipeline, but for the time being sponsors are standing bytheir projected in-service date, sort of.

Having set the world’s water-depth record for a combineddrilling and production platform, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Hoover andDiana fields now are averaging 140 MMcf of gas and 18,000 barrelsof oil per day from five wells, and contain estimated recoverableresources that exceed 300 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Record rainfall in parts of central and southern Saskatchewanhas put a damper on construction of the 1.325 Bcf/d AlliancePipeline, but for the time being sponsors are standing by theirprojected in-service date, sort of.

Having set the world’s water-depth record for a combineddrilling and production platform, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Hoover andDiana fields now are averaging 140 MMcf of gas and 18,000 barrelsof oil per day from five wells, and contain estimated recoverableresources that exceed 300 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Adding to gains achieved during Monday’s impressive rebound,natural gas futures erupted higher yesterday as traders bid theJuly contract to a new all-time high for a prompt month at Nymex.After gapping higher to open at $4.65, July checked back and forth,before eventually closing at $4.686, up 12.6 cents for the session.

Gas futures climbed to their second highest settlement ever onFriday and appear poised to make that final push this week to theplace where no near-month contract has gone before. What will lifebe like if near-month futures rise above $4.60 (or $4.62, if youuse the prior Nymex Access high of December 1996)?

Soliance Networks, the San Diego-based joint venture thatprovides total information solutions for the energy industry, hascompleted its first information technology project for an energyservice provider, getting the system running in just eight weeks.Soliance created an Internet-based “virtual utility” system forEnergy America’s customers that included enrollment, customerbilling operations, bill creation, and support. The “virtualutility” took six weeks to certify and validate, and two more weeksto become fully operational for Energy America. The system willsupport over 1 million customers by mid-2001. Energy America sellscompetitively priced natural gas and electricity to residential andsmall business customers in New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio,Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) announced last week thatit was seeking a $3.05 million civil penalty — the largest everproposed for a pipeline operator — against a petroleum productspipeline for an explosion that killed three last June. While thepenalty was huge, some speculated that Olympic Pipe Line’s woeswere far from over.

Much like on the East Coast a couple of weeks ago, arecord-setting heat wave set in over the weekend in California andthe desert Southwest. The effect on western peaking power pricesMonday wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the $6,000/MWh numbers hitearlier this month in the New England pool; however, gas pricesshowed a much greater impact this time.