Totaling

This tax season Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wrote checks collectively totaling $100 million for franchise fees and surcharges to the 244 cities in California in which it provide natural gas and electricity distribution utility services. It turned out to be $62 million for its electricity service operations and $38 million for the natural gas system. Another $39 million was paid to counties, the utility said.

Four producers — Anadarko Petroleum, ConocoPhillips Alaska, FEX LP and Petro-Canada Alaska Inc. — last Wednesday submitted bonus bids totaling $13.86 million to win the rights to develop 81 oil and natural gas lease tracts on nearly one million acres in the northwestern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska said.

Four producers — Anadarko Petroleum, ConocoPhillips Alaska, FEX LP and Petro-Canada Alaska Inc. — on Wednesday submitted bonus bids totaling $13.86 million to win the rights to develop 81 oil and natural gas lease tracts on nearly one million acres in the northwestern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Alaska said.

Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. has put five West Virginia gas gathering pipelines, totaling about 428 miles, along with five compressor stations on the auction block. The company will open a data room on July 10 to provide information to natural gas producers, marketers and others who may be interested in buying any one or all of the five pipeline systems.

Looking to bolster its position in the Williston Basin, Marathon Oil Corp. said Tuesday that it completed a series of land acquisitions totaling almost 200,000 leasehold acres in the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota and eastern Montana.

Northwest Pipeline Group has received binding precedent agreements from four companies for incremental storage service at Jackson Prairie totaling 104,000 Dth/d of firm deliverability capacity and an associated 1.2 trillion Btu of storage capacity.

The Williams Companies announced it has reached four separate agreements totaling $77.2 million to resolve pending claims and investigations related to the false reporting of natural gas prices and volumes to published indexes for a period that ended in the fall of 2002.

Drawing on robust results in its energy trading and utility businesses, San Diego-based Sempra Energy Wednesday reported record net income for all of 2005 totaling $920 million, or $3.65/diluted share, compared with $895 million, or $3.83/diluted share in 2004. For the fourth quarter last year, net income was $255 million, or $1.38/diluted share, compared with $346 million, or $1.46/diluted share, for the same period of the previous year.

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) business is poised for a period of strong growth through the rest of this decade, with capital expenditures worldwide totaling nearly $67 billion, according to a report released Thursday by energy analysts Douglas-Westwood.