Daily GPI

With electricity woes in California continuing to grow inseverity, Calpine Corp. is in the process of easing the strain inthe long term as it considers plans to develop and operate an 1,100MW natural gas-fired electric generating facility in AlamedaCounty, CA.

Mitchell Energy announced that follow-up drilling in two TexasGulf coast exploratory plays has increased natural gas productionby 30 MMcf/d and oil production by 550 b/d. For November, thecompany’s overall daily production averaged 344 MMcf of gas and5,400 bbl of oil, excluding the effect of a two-day shutdown of itsBridgeport plant to complete connections that will increase theplant’s throughput capacity by 50% in late December. “Discovery ofthe Lower Wilcox and Lake Creek area wells is another example ofour ability to combine 3-D seismic technology with our extensiveknowledge in core field areas to add new reserves,” said CEO GeorgeP. Mitchell. “While the Barnett shale play in North Texas isclearly the driver for much of the company’s volume growth,drilling in our other core areas can also be quite attractive andadd significant production as well.”

Projecting linepack falling beneath its minimum target levelsthrough Friday, Pacific Gas & Electric issued acustomer-specific OFO for today.

Citing colder than normal forecasts for the Kansas Citymetropolitan area, Williams implemented an OFO Monday, effectiveuntil further notice. Among other conditions, the OFO suspends allinterruptible storage and park-and-loan service loan activity “asrequired,” and imbalance gas due customers is not available.

Following on the heels of yet another early morning Accesstrading buying surge, natural gas futures pressed higher againMonday as short-term weather forecasts corroborated medium rangeoutlooks that last week called for an invasion of Arctic air notseen in the United States in several years.

Chemical companies, forced to shut in operations because of highnatural gas prices, are nevertheless making money — by sellinggas futures contracts.

FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker has signaled that the Commissionis investigating the causes for the rapid escalation in natural gasprices in California and elsewhere in the nation.

Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. (Tetco) is holding open seasonfrom Dec. 11 to Jan. 12 for a pipeline expansion in its M3 marketarea in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The project will combineexisting unsubscribed capacity with incremental firm capacity tocreate a low-cost expansion option for Texas Eastern shippers, thepipeline said.

Dynegydirect, the B2B portal and trading site that was launchedby Houston-based Dynegy Inc. and began trading Nov. 1, has alreadyexceeded $1.5 billion in online notional transactions, with morethan $1 billion of the energy and communications commoditytransactions generated by new customers. The site now has more than400 registered users (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17).