Water

Although still revenue and asset-strong, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest municipal utility, is facing increased local political pressure to prepare for a worst-case scenario of higher than expected natural gas prices. The city wants LADWP to tighten up its operations with the creation of a $100 million contingent budget item as a reserve for high gas costs.

The Houston Exploration Co. announced Wednesday its first shallow-water deep-shelf discovery at High Island, off the Texas coast near Galveston, which is testing at 20 MMcf/d.

The nation’s largest municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), feels secure in being able to avoid any negative impact from Wednesday’s federal decisions on pending California electricity crisis cases, and in hedging against the current and projected volatility in wholesale natural gas prices, according to General Manager David Wiggs in an interview Monday with NGI/Power Market Today.

Volumes and prices for spot market wholesale electricity purchases by California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) shifted upward over the last two months of 2002, according to statistics released Tuesday by DWR’s Sacramento office. Spot purchases exceeded 1 million MWh (1.056 million MWh) in December, 2002, at an average cost of $43/MWh, in contrast to the previous month when spot purchases hit 906,000 MWh, at an average cost of $38/MWh.

While water levels in the Pacific Northwest, remaining winter weather in the East and even the advent of war with Iraq all could impact this summer’s natural gas and electricity prices in Nevada, Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Corp. officials indicated Monday they are not overly concerned. They do admit the short-term future is unclear because of the many widely diverse variables involved.

The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Allegheny Energy Supply Co. LLC alleging that the company’s declining financial condition and its move to assign a long-term energy contract with CDWR to a newly-formed subsidiary are in violation of the contract’s provisions.

Marathon Oil Co. and TotalFinaElf have set new world water-depth records for producing wells and laying pipelines, respectively, both at 7,209 feet below the surface, according to Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS). This exceeds the previous deepwater production record by about 100 feet, which was set by the French energy concern, TotalFinaElf, two months ago in the Aconcagua field in the Gulf of Mexico.

Marathon Oil Co. and TotalFinaElf have set new world water-depth records for producing wells and laying pipelines, respectively, both at 7,209 feet below the surface, according to Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS). This exceeds the previous deepwater production record by about 100 feet, which was set by the French energy concern, TotalFinaElf, two months ago in the Aconcagua field in the Gulf of Mexico.

The once Titanic-like TXU Corp. was bailing water at a furious pace Monday morning, after a devastating collision with European power markets. By 9 a.m., it had squeezed 80% from its once untouchable quarterly dividend, and cast adrift its European subsidiaries, sinking a plan to infuse $700 million in equity in operations, eliminating them from a cross-default provision on its $500 million bank facility and ultimately deciding that “all portions” of the European business are up for sale.