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The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is soliciting bids forabout 25 MMcf/d or its royalty share of gas produced from certainoffshore leases in the Matagorda Island Offshore Operating System(MOPS). Bids are due by July 24 at 1 p.m. ET and the winner will bechosen within the following 24 hours.

The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) has given a greenlight to the July 1 transfer of 1,300 MW of Allegheny Energy Inc.’sPotomac Edison generating assets to its non-regulated energy supplyaffiliate. The transfer of the generating assets to AlleghenyEnergy Supply Co. LLC will give it more than 5,400 MW of low-costgenerating capacity to sell in the deregulated marketplace.

To prepare for the coming peak period of electricityconsumption, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) hasannounced it will monitor the state’s wholesale electric marketduring this first summer of its operation. The market now isadministered by the New York Independent System Operator (NY ISO),an independent non-profit organization that operates the state’sbulk power system and administers a competitive wholesale marketfor electricity.

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.

More security. More electronic commerce solutions. Moreflexibility. Those are a few of the reasons that e-commerce leaderAltra Energy Technologies Inc. announced yesterday it will upgradeits Internet web-based services by using Extensible MarkupLanguage, or XML, to integrate its AltraWeb Product. XML is aprecise, cutting-edge version of its forerunner, hypertext markuplanguage (HTML), the basic language used to communicate on theWorld Wide Web.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service contends arecent bid to exclude Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) pipelines fromFERC’s industry-wide ban on “buy-sell” transactions is based on theincorrect assumption that such transactions routinely occur as partof the agency’s royalty in-kind (RIK) projects.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service contends arecent bid for FERC to exclude Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)pipelines from an industry-wide ban on “buy-sell” transactions isbased on the incorrect assumption that such transactions routinelyoccur as part of the agency’s royalty in-kind (RIK) projects.

If the Minerals Management Service (MMS) is correct, the Gulf ofMexico has a growing role to play in meeting the nation’s demandfor natural gas. The agency presented results of a study evaluatingthe role of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in supplyingfuture U.S. gas demand at a symposium held in Houston last week.

The Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM) hailed a New MexicoSupreme Court decision yesterday that ruled in favor of PNM andoverturned a $6.9 million gas utility rate reduction imposed bystate regulators in 1997.