Ties

A bonus and incentive plan used by Royal Dutch/Shell Group apparently is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine whether it encouraged upper level management to overstate oil and gas reserves.

To reiterate its strong ties to the U.S. energy industry, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein led a trade mission to New York this month to meet with investment companies and business leaders to encourage continuing oil and gas investments that have made the province Canada’s energy capital.

To reiterate its strong ties to the U.S. energy industry, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein led a trade mission to New York this month to meet with investment companies and business leaders to encourage continuing oil and gas investments that have made the province Canada’s energy capital.

Locational marginal pricing (LMP), a key component of FERC’s massive standard market design (SMD) proposal for U.S. wholesale power markets, will fail in the absence of so-called participant funding for new transmission construction and upgrades, a top official with Southern Co. said last Wednesday.

Williams could pick up some needed cash and finally end its costly affiliation with its former telecommunications unit by selling its shares to an unknown, deep-pocketed investor, according to news reports. Williams Communications Group Inc., which siphoned off its parent’s cash before spinning off, and then never turned a profit, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year (see Daily GPI, April 24).

Williams could pick up some needed cash and finally end its costly affiliation with its former telecommunications unit by selling its shares to an unknown, deep-pocketed investor, according to news reports. Williams Communications Group Inc., which siphoned off its parent’s cash before spinning off, and then never turned a profit, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year (see Daily GPI, April 24).

In an effort to improve its supply diversity on its Texas Gas Transmission (TGT) system, a unit of Williams said last week that it is connecting to a “significant” new supply source in offshore Louisiana at East Cameron Block 9 in the Gulf of Mexico, which is being developed by Energy Partners, Ltd.

A newly formed coalition of municipal utilities, consumers, independent producers and energy service companies is warning that a potential natural gas supply crunch and higher retail energy prices are in store for this year due largely to speculator-induced price volatility within the markets.

FERC has agreed to allow UBS AG to sell energy, capacity and ancillary services at market-based rates, a decision that follows on the heels of UBS Warburg Energy, a U.S.-based unit of UBS, last month purchasing the North American natural gas and power trading business of Enron Corp.