Daily GPI

Twenty six members of the House have called for FERC Chairman Pat Wood and Commissioner Nora M. Brownell to recuse themselves from the Commission’s ongoing probe into Enron Corp.’s role in the potential price manipulation of energy markets in the West, citing their past connections to the company’s top officer.

In a departure from the gloomy quarterly financial results flowing from the energy sector, El Paso Corp. reported Thursday a significant gain in earnings during the first quarter of this year, which was a complete about-face from the poor performance that it turned in during the same period a year ago.

While sharply lower oil and gas prices took an 80% chunk out of Devon Energy’s earnings in the first quarter, the company’s oil and gas production soared, following the additions of Anderson Exploration and Mitchell Energy.

An Alaska natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48 is far from a sure thing, but Petro-Canada appears to be hedging its bets that one day gas eventually will move south. The Calgary-based producer, with a high bid of $8.5 million, won the right to lease 179 tracts of gas-rich property that cascades through the southern foothills of the North Slope in Alaska’s largest lease sale to date, acreage-wise. More important to Petro-Canada, the acreage boosts its North Slope potential to 1.3 million acres the company won 56 tracts in the same region just last year.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line has placed its Sundance Expansion Project into service, increasing capacity by more than 236,000 Dth/d mainly for traditional markets and new power plants in Georgia and the Carolinas. The project includes four pipeline loops, totaling 38 miles, along the company’s existing mainline system and 41,225 hp of compression at two existing compressor stations in Georgia — Station 115 in Coweta County and Station 125 in Walton County.

A year past the initial stigma of its utility affiliate’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, PG&E National Energy Group (NEG) is focused on streamlining its portfolio of new energy projects and hanging on to its investment-grade credit ratings, according to its senior PG&E executive who spoke Thursday in a conference call with the financial community. On an operating basis both the NEG nonutility businesses and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility showed lower earnings than the same period in 2001.

Marking its exit from natural gas, Sunoco Inc. has completed the sale of its natural gas sales and marketing business to Ontario Energy Savings Corp. (OESC) for C$66 million. First reported in early April, the sale is part of the company’s plan to return to its core businesses (see Daily GPI, April 8).

Apache Corp. Chairman Raymond Plank said Thursday that G. Steven Farris has been elected to the position of CEO, adding to his current duties as president and COO. Plank, Apache’s founder, announced the change at Apache’s annual meeting and said he will continue to participate in the management of the company. He said the move would become effective May 29, as he turns 80. Always known to speak his mind, Plank used part of the annual meeting to blame Enron Corp. and Dynegy Inc. for manipulating natural gas prices. Last week, Plank blasted the “unholy alliance between the brethren” of marketers, that operate as middlemen between producers and consumers to create volatility. The marketers claim, “volatility is what we make money on,” but actually, they are “merely manipulating prices to their advantage,” he said (see Daily GPI, April 25). Farris, who is 54, has been Apache’s president and COO since 1994. He joined Apache in June 1988 as vice president of domestic exploration and production and was promoted to senior vice president in 1991. In December 1954, Plank, along with Truman Anderson and Charles Arnao, established Apache Oil Corp. in Minneapolis, MN. The public company began with 41 investors, six employees and $250,000 of seed capital.

Adding to the list of energy trading companies that have seen a sizeable jump in business since Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, Sequent Energy Management, the wholesale marketing and supply arm of Atlanta-based AGL Resources Inc., said that its business volumes have risen nearly 300% since the energy giant announced Chapter 11.