Vice

Participation in natural gas price surveys is increasing, price publishers told FERC staff Tuesday, at the same time companies reported there is much less complaining from traders about the results of the surveys.

Williams Tuesday named Donald R. Chappel as senior vice president and chief financial officer. “Don Chappel brings considerable, relevant experience to Williams as we continue to strengthen our finances and refine our focus on integrated natural gas businesses,” said Steve Malcolm, chairman and CEO. Chappel, 51, most recently founded and served as chief executive officer of a development business in Chicago. His previous experience includes serving twice in the late 1990s as CFO of Waste Management, Inc. during periods before and after its 1998 merger with USA Waste Services. On those occasions, a board-led management team comprised of a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, a fund manager/shareholder activist, and a financial-turnaround specialist recruited Chappel as CFO. In that role, Chappel is credited with successfully leading the company’s financial-recovery efforts and building a solid foundation for the future. Prior to Waste Management, Chappel served in financial leadership roles at Beatrice Companies and a major public accounting firm. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Former Enron Corp. vice president Sherron Watkins, who warned then-Chairman Kenneth L. Lay in August 2001 that the energy trading company was about to “implode” in a wave of accounting irregularities, and two other whistle-blowers were named over the weekend as Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year. She will share the cover with WorldCom auditor Cynthia Cooper and FBI agent Coleen Rowley.

In one of the largest settlements ever, the Houston-based company that was once run by Vice President Dick Cheney said the agreement resolves all present and future asbestos claims, allowing the $13 billion company to continue business as usual while providing for victims of asbestos exposure.

A former El Paso Corp. vice president and energy trader was indicted last Wednesday on charges that he submitted price and volume information on a series of bogus natural gas trades to Platt’s Inside FERC Gas Market Report to use in calculating its index price for gas. The news helped to fuel the steady slide in El Paso stock throughout most of last week, during which it lost about 20% of its value to trade at about $6.71 a share Friday.

A former El Paso Corp. vice president and energy trader was indicted Wednesday on charges that he submitted price and volume information on a series of bogus natural gas trades to Platt’s Inside FERC Gas Market Report to use in calculating its index price for gas. The news caused El Paso stock to tumble for the third day in a row, sliding by about 7% to close at $7.05 a share.

Former FERC Commissioner Donald Santa Jr. is expected to assume the new position of executive vice president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) later this year and take over the reins of the interstate pipeline group by as early as 2004, when its existing president, Jerald V. Halvorsen, is due to retire.

Former FERC Commissioner Donald Santa Jr. is expected to assume the new position of executive vice president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) later this year and take over the reins of the interstate pipeline group by as early as 2004, when its existing president, Jerald V. Halvorsen, is due to retire.

Elizabeth Moler, former FERC chair and now senior vice-president at Exelon, last Wednesday urged the Commission to start providing some certainty in the area of regional transmission organization (RTO) formation, noting that several utilities are drawing a line in the sand on spending more money on RTO-related development until that certainty is offered.