Touts

“We are standing on the doorstep of some of America’s largestenergy-consuming markets: Boston, New York City, Chicago,Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We believe therewill be about a half-dozen national energy providers. SouthernCompany intends to be one of those companies.”

Unocal Corp.’s Spirit Energy 76 unit announced a “verysignificant” oil and gas discovery on the Mad Dog prospect in theGulf of Mexico deep-water Green Canyon block 826. The wellencountered 300 net feet of hydrocarbons, mainly crude oil. Aspokeswoman said more specific information about how much of MadDog reserves might be gas is not yet available.

The natural gas utility industry may be small when compared toother investment opportunities, but it’s still an extremelyattractive stock play – especially for the small- to medium-sizedinvestor, said a representative of the American Gas Association(AGA) last week.

Enron Corp. reported a 16% increase in 1998 earnings per dilutedshare, led by wholesale energy marketing operations. Earnings roseto $2.01/share from $1.74 in 1997. Corresponding net incomeincreased 36% to $698 million from $515 million during the year.The comparisons are before non-recurring items and last year’s gainof $61 million, related to the sale of a 7% interest in EnronEnergy Services.

Arthur Andersen launched the KnowledgeSpace Energy Community, arevised and enhanced premium community developed for the energyindustry. By supplementing oil and gas content with information andresources specifically for the utility industry, the EnergyCommunity replaces the Oil & Gas Community in KnowledgeSpace,Arthur Andersen’s gateway to online business information, tools andresources.

While the FERC cooks up a rulemaking that could lead to anauction system for short-term capacity, Commissioner Curt Hebert isinviting more chefs into the kitchen. “My feeling is there is nosecret to the recipe as long as it tastes the same in the end. Andif you have another recipe, I’d enjoy hearing about it,” Heberttold attendees at Gas Daily’s conference titled “Building BetterGas Transportation” Wednesday in Houston. “

Competition has changed the energy industry forever, spurringcompanies to use creativity to provide real choices for all energycustomers, according to Oliver G. Richard III, CEO of ColumbiaEnergy Group, at yesterday’s plenary session of the seventh annualNatural Gas Conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energyand the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

The distributed power movement and alternative energytechnologies got a boost from American Gas Association (AGA)Chairman David Biegler last week in his remarks at the 17thCongress of the World Energy Council (WEC) in Houston.

The distributed power movement got a boost from American GasAssociation (AGA) Chairman David Biegler this week from remarksmade at the 17th Congress of the World Energy Council (WEC) inHouston. “Distributed power is attractive to consumers, especiallyin facilities like manufacturing plants, laundries and hospitalsthat need both electric power and thermal energy,” said Biegler,CEO of Texas Utilities. “It can cut costs, provide waste heat foron-site use and improve power quality and reliability.” Hepredicted distributed power could provide as much as 50 gigawattsof power by 2015, compared to less than 2 GW today.