Daily GPI

Achieving a vast amount of success in Georgia’s newlyderegulated retail gas industry came at a significant price, SCANAsaid last week as the South Carolina-based company reported 1999earnings of $179 million, or $1.73/share of common stock, down from$223 million, or $2.12/share in 1998.

California regulators gave San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. andits partner, San Francisco-based Bechtel Enterprises, the okay tobuild a $450 million, 880 MW natural gas-fired power plant, theDelta Energy Center, near the Dow Chemical facility in Pittsburg,CA, an industrial town in the East San Francisco Bay area.Construction is expected to get under way this summer, bringing tothree the number of merchant plants approved by Californiaauthorities, all involving Calpine.

EOG Resources and Burlington Resources announced a deal to swapproducing properties with about 40 Bcfe of gas (or 6.5 million bblof oil equivalent) in proved developed reserves. The oil and gasproperties EOG will receive are located in the Permian Basin ofsoutheast New Mexico and West Texas. Burlington will receiveprimarily gas properties centered in its operating areas of theAnadarko Basin in northwest Oklahoma and Hemphill County, TX.

Northwest reported that since mid-January it has been receiving”unprecedented levels” of liquid hydrocarbons from QuestarPipeline’s Clay Basin storage facility, “culminating in a criticalhigh of 21,000 gallons on Feb. 5.” Northwest has collected thecondensate at its Green River (WY) Compressor Station, but thefilter-separator system there was designed to collect only minimalamounts. Since last Monday, Northwest said, it has physicallytaken approximately 100,000 Dth/d from Clay Basin and was making upthe shortfall by withdrawing gas from Jackson Prairie. Northwestassured shippers it is working with Questar to keep Clay Basinnominations whole, but cautioned that at some point it may berequired “by prudent operations” to refuse gas nominated from ClayBasin.Northwest will provide 24 hours’ notice in such an event,but said Friday there would be no refusals over the weekend.Shippers can help ease the situation by voluntarily reducing ClayBasin nominations to whatever extent possible, Northwest said.

The race to serve the lucrative Florida generation market becamemore clear yesterday, as Duke Energy announced it has shelved itsproposed Sawgrass pipeline project and allied with a formercompetitor, Williams’ Buccaneer Pipeline.

Although stating several times the FERC-ordered changes to itsexisting capacity-allocation procedures weren’t “necessary orappropriate,” El Paso Natural Gas has proposed a new allocationscheme that would assign “pathed” and “non-pathed” rights for thedelivery of shippers’ gas to the California market.

Nicor Inc. has signed on as an equal partner in the plannedHorizon Pipeline with Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Natural Gas PipelineCompany of America (NGPL), the companies said. The partners alsosubmitted Horizon’s application to FERC this week.

Commodity prices are up, and the financial performance of anumber of energy companies is on the rise. The question being askedthis week in Houston is why are Wall Streeters treating energycompany stocks like ugly stepchildren?

“Opportunities in the regulated utility business have never beenbetter,” according to UtiliCorp United Chairman Richard C. Green,Jr.