Spirit

A winter drilling season with potential to fulfill Canadian northern oil visions has begun, with an adventurous spirit driving bits down into an all but untouched shale deposit known as the Canol.

An abrupt lesson in a no-nonsense spirit guiding Canadian regulatory reform has been dealt out to environmental protesters and their political supporters. The National Energy Board (NEB) made an example of an attempt to inject green resistance into a pipeline toll case. The protest was rejected without NEB even seeking replies to an initial protest letter to the agency.

An abrupt lesson in a no-nonsense spirit guiding Canadian regulatory reform has been dealt out to environmental protesters and their political supporters.

Teekay Corp. and Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc. have agreed to develop a project to convert the SS Arctic Spirit into a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to be moored alongside a pier near Kitimat, British Columbia, Teekay said Thursday. The facility would be a stone’s throw from a proposed land-based liquefaction terminal.

Teekay Corp. and Merrill Lynch Commodities Inc. have agreed to develop a project to convert the SS Arctic Spirit into a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to be moored alongside a pier near Kitimat, British Columbia, Teekay said Thursday. The facility would be a stone’s throw from a proposed land-based liquefaction terminal.

For the second time this week Pacific Gas and Electric displayed its holiday spirit doling out $85 million in property taxes to 49 California counties in which it has utility operations. They payments, made last Friday, represent the utility’s property taxes for the period covering the last six months of 2004.

Standing out as a bright spot of corporate morality, the team formed at KeySpan Corp. of CEO Robert Catell and Corporate Ombudsman Kenny Moore show how a company can be successful by operating the right way. The story of the unlikely duo, which pairs a large company CEO with a former monk, is told in a new book: “The CEO & The Monk, One Company’s Journey to Profit and Purpose.”

The Williams Companies should be in the holiday spirit after Wednesday’s decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirming an Oct. 12 certificate that allowed Williams to reopen the Cove Point LNG import terminal in Lusby, MD. The Commission reviewed its original decision after Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski charged that it would permit “flammable” LNG to be imported to a site within four miles of the nuclear facility in her state.

Quicksilver Resources Inc. of Fort Worth, TX, closed on theacquisition of substantially all of Unocal Corp.’s Spirit Energy 76unit’s gas and oil assets in Michigan. Total consideration was $27million in cash and 404,381 shares of Quicksilver common stock. Thetransaction is effective January 1, 1999.