Reiterating

North Dakota continues to set new records for oil and natural gas production, but it also continues to see more flared gas, according to officials.

A major shareholder, the hedge fund Pirate Capital LLC reiterating its strong opposition, told independent directors of Mirant Corp. Monday it would call for a special meeting of the company’s stockholders if Mirant did not immediately drop its unsolicited bid for NRG Energy, Inc., prompting the Atlanta-based merchant power plant operator to quickly abandon the hostile takeover, although it continued to characterize the deal as a “compelling opportunity.”

Reiterating what its senior executives have been saying in recent quarters, Sempra Energy officials Thursday said the marketplace is not giving the company enough credit for the results it has achieved, particularly in the energy trading sector. Therefore, sale of any of its major business units, including Sempra Commodities, is unlikely to occur before 2008 when some of the company’s major liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline/storage projects begin providing new revenue streams.

While using 2003 forecast data for the most part, the California Energy Commission (CEC) recently released its latest natural gas assessment, reiterating concerns and observations from last year — mainly about continued historic high wholesale prices and the need for some combination of demand-response and new supply imports to meet future demand.

Reiterating its belief that liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports will be necessary to augment dwindling domestic supply, Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) added that it believes that imported LNG will “radically change” the U.S. and world gas markets, pushing domestic gas prices downward.

Reiterating his company’s “back-to-basics” strategy, which has become a staple of most energy companies in today’s current marketplace, CMS Energy Corp. President David W. Joos said that through asset sales his company has become closer to being “safer, smaller and stronger.”

Reiterating his company’s “back-to-basics” strategy, which has become a staple of most energy companies in today’s current marketplace, CMS Energy Corp. President David W. Joos said that through asset sales his company has become closer to being “safer, smaller and stronger.”

With the White House last week reiterating its support for a voluntary approach to regional transmission organizations (RTO), FERC Chairman Pat Wood on Wednesday said that if his agency doesn’t have the “tool” of being able to order mandatory participation in the regional grid operators, the Commission will effectively be crippled in its efforts to set up regional power markets.

While reiterating the ever-tighter intertwining of electricity and natural gas, a major statewide energy assessment by the California Energy Commission released Monday predicted that the next three years should be free of any large risk of a return of the supply/price meltdown of two years ago. However, without an integrated approach that addresses a wide variety of energy, environmental and economic needs, the state could be back in a crisis mode by 2007.