Worth

FERC has alerted three power suppliers to the California market that they must justify $587,000 worth of wholesale electricity sold during Stage Three emergencies in the month of March or pay refunds.

FERC told six California power suppliers Friday that they mustjustify $55 million worth of wholesale electricity sold duringStage Three emergencies in the month of February or pay refunds.

FERC told six California power suppliers Friday that they mustjustify $55 million worth of wholesale electricity sold duringStage Three emergencies in the month of February or pay refunds.

Still holding on to the collateral of its 70-odd participants inthe form of letters of credit and bonds worth hundreds of millionsof dollars, California’s state-chartered nonprofit wholesale spotmarket for electricity, Cal-PX, chose a Chapter 11 bankruptcyfiling last week because of the preponderance of litigation andfederal regulatory actions pending, its CEO George Sladoje saidMonday.

Independent Fort Worth-based Cross Timbers Oil Inc.’s boardapproved a $200 million exploration and development budget for thecoming year, and said it expects most of the increase to go towardgas production, estimated to be 15% higher than this year.Including natural gas liquids and oil the company expects itsyear-over-year Mcfe growth rate to be 10% to 12%.

After being on the divestiture road for almost a year andshedding $3 billion worth of non-core assets, TransCanada PipeLinesLtd., reported that its first nine months of 2000 and third quartershowed progress over the equivalent time periods of 1999. Netearnings before asset sales and long-term natural gas contractlosses were $433 million ($0.91 per share) for the first ninemonths of 2000, compared to $402 million ($0.86 per share) duringthe same period last year. The company attributed the 8% increaseto higher income from the power and gas marketing businesses aswell as reduced financial and preferred equity charges. Beforeadding special items, the company posted third quarter net earningsof $151 million ($0.32 per share), compared to $141 million ($0.30per share) for the third quarter of 1999.Deliveries of natural gason the Canadian Mainline and the BC system were approximately thesame for the first nine months of 2000 and 1999. The CanadianMainline delivered about 7.3 Bcf/d for both periods, while the BCsystem delivered approximately 1.1 Bcf/d. The Alberta system didexperience a decline. For the first nine months of 2000 itdelivered an average of 12.2 Bcf/d, compared with the same periodduring 1999 when it delivered 12.4 Bcf/d. Marketing also stumbled abit, as the company marketed about 6.1 Bcf/d for the first ninemonths of 2000, compared to 6.6 Bcf/d for the first nine months of1999. TransCanada took a beating on some long-term natural gascontracts it had entered into to support various pipelineinvestments and other business initiatives. Due to growing naturalgas demand in Alberta, and excess pipeline capacity leaving theprovince, the price differential between the Western CanadaSedimentary Basin and eastern market areas continued to shrink.TransCanada was forced to enter into third party arrangements tocrystallize the negative value of its long term natural gascontracts and the company reported taking a $124 million after-taxcharge associated with the losses.

Tractebel of Belgium last week completed the purchase of Cabot LNG, the largest U.S. importer of liquefied natural gas, from Cabot Corp., in a deal worth $680 million.

Tractebel of Belgium yesterday completed the purchase of CabotLNG, the largest U.S. importer of liquefied natural gas, from CabotCorp., in a deal worth $680 million.

Continuing on a trek to grab the lion’s share of the energyservices market, two subsidiaries of Enron Corp. yesterday inkedfinancial deals, totaling more than $1 billion that capitalize onthe Houston-based company’s energy management expertise and growthin the global risk market.