Turning

Canada’s National Energy Board released fresh evidence that the turning point in conventional western Canadian supplies has arrived. Despite strong prices and spare capacity on the TransCanada system, the board’s monitoring system has registered the third straight monthly decline in deliveries to the United States.

With many areas turning quite mild for early January and some doubt surfacing about the severity of a predicted return of winter storms later this week, cash prices were flat to down about 35 cents Monday. The common range for most declines was between about a dime and a quarter.

Turning around its quarterly earnings to post a gain, Chicago-based Peoples Energy on Friday posted net income for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30 of $1.7 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $13 million, or ($0.37) per share. Peoples beat a Thomson First Call consensus estimate of 2 cents a share for the period.

Turning aside objections made by generators, FERC last Thursday agreed to a request made by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) that will allow the grid operator to extend its existing market design, including a hard price cap of $91.87/MWh, through the end of October as CAISO continues to work out kinks in mitigation-related software.

Turning his attention to energy suppliers in the Pacific Northwest, California’s attorney general Thursday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order more than $1 billion in refunds to California for past wholesale power purchases from five suppliers from the northwest region, including two public sector providers. The petition cites documents subpoenaed from Enron’s Portland trading unit that accuse other suppliers in the region of using market manipulation tactics similar to those it used.

Capitol Hill investigators are turning the heat up on former Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay, attempting to get him to appear before their committees to explain the Enron meltdown in what is fast becoming an election year political circus.

With three expansions to its system in the works for 2002 and 2003, Southern Natural Gas is turning its attention to 2004, soliciting non-binding requests for long-term firm transportation on any part of its system.

With three expansions to its system in the works for 2002 and 2003, Southern Natural Gas is turning its attention to 2004, soliciting non-binding requests for long-term firm transportation on any part of its system.

With summer 2001 only a week away, all eyes are turning toward California to see how the embattled state handles itself through the three-month period when air conditioning usage reaches its peak and MW supply becomes scarce. With the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) already on record expecting rotating power outages during peak afternoon demand hours in the state, the key issue is how will the outages impact petroleum product and natural gas supply in the state.