Unique

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) has begun two unique pilot hedging programs for the state’s largest gas and electric utilities as part of an overall plan to lessen the impact of energy price volatility on consumers. The OCC order, announced last week, for the first time involves all the major utilities, and is part of a concerted effort to find solutions to the impact of high market prices that have hit the state and the rest of the nation for more than a year.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) has begun two unique pilot hedging programs for the state’s largest gas and electric utilities as part of an overall plan to lessen the impact of energy price volatility on consumers. The OCC order, announced this week, for the first time involves all the major utilities, and is part of a concerted effort, to find solutions to the impact of high market prices that have hit the state and the rest of the nation for more than a year.

In what appears to be a perfect match, Sempra Energy’s communications unit has come up with a process to marry natural gas with fiber optics. If successful and approved by the various public utility commissions around the country, Sempra could solve one of the telecommunications industry’s biggest problems — transport — by using the nation’s gas pipelines to carry fiber optic cable from outlying networks into buildings.

Detroit Edison reported that its unique bid-phased electricchoice program in Michigan continues to receive a positive responsefrom new participants using the system. The fifth and final bidphase of the program showed that demand for capacity on itsdistribution system again exceeded the amount of space available,as the company received over 70 requests.

Detroit Edison reported that its unique bid-phased electricchoice program in Michigan continues to receive a positive responsefrom new participants using the system. The fifth and final bidphase of the program showed that demand for capacity on itsdistribution system again exceeded the amount of space available,as the company received over 70 requests.

The new chief executive at PacifiCorp decided the cure for thecompany’s sickly earnings is a strategy successfully attempted byother utility companies that found themselves in trouble: get backto basics.

The role the Natural Gas Supply Association “provides is unique,and our members haven’t given us any indication that they areanything but pleased,” said Rebecca McDonald, this year’s chair ofthe organization and the future senior vice president of global gasmarketing for BP-Amoco. McDonald was questioned by NGI aboutpersistent rumors that NGSA, which originally was created topromote the decontrol of natural gas, would be disbanded and itsfunctions rolled into the American Petroleum Institute. McDonaldsaid the two organizations address very different issues, with APIfocusing on upstream oil and gas and NGSA involved mainly indownstream activities. “NGSA has done a good job with a difficulttask.”

Dauphin Island Gathering Partners (DIGP) has signed an uniquesupply and gathering agreement with producers Elf Exploration Inc.,Coastal Oil and Gas, Nippon Oil Exploration U.S.A. and PogoProducing, who are partners in the deep-water Virgo prospect.

Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City has signed a unique agreementwith Gothic Energy Corp., Tulsa, which includes the right for fiveyears to develop 50% of Gothic’s current and subsequently acquiredundeveloped reserves. This includes 60 Bcfe of proved undevelopedreserves and a substantial amount of probable and possiblereserves.