Season

‘Tis the season to spend money, and many of North America’slarge and small producers are doing just that, dropping bonusesinto the envelopes of newly expanded exploration and developmentprograms for the coming year. In recent days, both U.S. andCanadian producers have announced visions of increased energyproduction next year, with most of the promise in domestic naturalgas development.

Some state officials already are dubbing the upcoming heatingseason as California’s “winter of discontent” as continued highwholesale natural gas prices are driving up consumer bills andstate regulators look at options for unbundling Southern CaliforniaGas Co.’s transmission and storage system.

Will there be fewer holiday lights this season in Wisconsin?More woodburning fires? Wisconsin Public Service Corp., a unit ofWPS Resources Corp., warned Friday that its natural gas customersmay see a 17% hike in their energy bills this month because of thelatest increase in wholesale gas prices. WPSC said that its averageresidential customer would pay nearly 57% more overall this yearthan last, about $50 total.

Asset sales within the energy industry continue to be the nameof the game as the winter heating season begins to set in. Two ofQuestar Corp.’s subsidiaries are the latest participants, as theyhave entered into agreements to sell working interests in oil andgas producing properties in Oklahoma and northern Texas as well asan Oklahoma gas-gathering system. Chesapeake Energy Corp. hasagreed to acquire the assets from Questar Exploration andProduction and Questar Gas Management for $27 million dollars. Thesale includes working interests in 290 properties with a currentcombined net production of about 4.3 MMcf/d and 180 b/d. Theagreement was effective on the first of this month, and thecompanies hope to close the deal by Dec. 31, 2000. The producingproperties do not have long-term strategic importance to Questar,said Gary Nordloh, president of Questar Exploration and Production.The asset sale will help improve operating efficiency and result inan immediate decrease in Questar’s amortization rate, he added.

To borrow a little from Shakespeare, the Summer of 2000 in SanDiego has been the season of consumers’ extreme discontent.Consumers burn their bills in protest, others just are burning.State officials, led by Gov. Gray Davis, claim profit-hungrynon-utility power plant owners have taken advantage of severesupply shortages to gouge consumers. But what’s the real story?

To borrow a little from Shakespeare, the Summer of 2000 in SanDiego has been the season of consumers’ extreme discontent.Consumers burn their bills in protest, others just are burning.State officials, led by Gov. Gray Davis, claim profit-hungrynon-utility power plant owners have taken advantage of severesupply shortages to gouge consumers. But what’s the real story?

Great Lakes is holding an open season through July 31 for thesale of firm service from Emerson to Carlton in seven packagessubject to Right of First Refusal provisions of the pipeline’stariff (that is, each existing shipper can match the highest bidfor the capacity and retain it). Up to 70,927 Dth/d of capacitystarting Nov. 1, 2002 is available. Call a marketing representativeat (888) 275-3611 for more information.

Kern River is accepting bids through this afternoon in an openseason for summer firm capacity from May 1 through Nov. 30. Theavailable space will vary by month, ranging from lows of 25 MMcf/din August and November to a high of 53 MMcf/d in May. The pipelinewill consider fixed-price and indexed bids. Call Jeff Leishman at(801) 584-6682 or Dave Stevens at -7101 for more information.

A Williams pipeline unit said last week that it has receivednonbinding interest for about 190 MMcf/d on its proposedinternational gas pipeline link from the Pacific Northwest tocogeneration plants on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Thestrong results prompted Williams and its partner, BC Hydro, to goback to the drawing board on the proposed size, route and generalscope of the project, which was originally estimated at about $120million and 100 MMcf/d.