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The Minerals Management Service has scheduled its only Eastern Gulf of Mexico sale in its current five-year leasing plan – and the first proposed sale in the eastern section of the Gulf in more than 12 years. Proposed lease sale 181, scheduled December 2001, would include 1,033 blocks covering 5,949 million acres – about 8% of the total area in the Eastern Gulf Planning Area.

The Minerals Management Service has scheduled its only EasternGulf of Mexico sale in its current five-year leasing plan — andthe first proposed sale in the eastern section of the Gulf in morethan 12 years. Proposed lease sale 181, scheduled December 2001,would include 1,033 blocks covering 5,949 million acres — about8% of the total area in the Eastern Gulf Planning Area.

The name “ICE” doesn’t seem to do the white-hot trading exchangejustice, after IntercontinentalExchange, which marketsover-the-counter energy and metals products, announced it tradedmore than 2 million MWh in one day — Thursday — just one monthafter going live with its complete energy portfolio.

Although a lot of leg work still remains to be done, PetroleosMexicanos, the national oil company of Mexico, plans to drill fivedeepwater wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in the next sevento 10 years, according to a petroleum engineer for PemexExploration & Production.

California’s weather turned milder Monday, but that didn’t coolthe political and regulatory heat centered on its electricityrestructuring and supply/price woes this summer. The latest turnwas San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. throwing in the towel lastFriday in its plans to bring a 95-MW peak-shaving generating plantinto the San Francisco Bay on a barge.

Through a partnership announced yesterday with Endesco, afor-profit subsidiary of the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT),NiSource Inc. subsidiary EnergyUSA said it is advancing plans tobecome a major provider of residential fuel cells in the emergingmarket for distributed generation technology.

Westcoast Energy, Cascade Natural Gas Corp. and Puget SoundEnergy (PSE) may build the Orca Natural Gas Pipeline (ONGP) toserve Northwest Washington consumers. Westcoast is leading theproject evaluation and development for the three companies.

Westcoast Energy, Cascade Natural Gas Corp. and Puget SoundEnergy (PSE) announced last week that they have teamed together toexplore the feasibility of building a new pipeline to serveconsumers in northwestern Washington. Westcoast is leading theproject evaluation and development for the three companies andwould be the lead developer as the project moves forward.

Calpine Corp. continued its torrid growth last week byannouncing intentions to build two new power plants in theSoutheast. The 1,500 MW of production generated by the newlyproposed plants is expected to be available in 2003. Calpine saidit expects to invest $805 million for the two plants.