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There has been a huge increase in exploration and production”overspending” in the U.S. and Canada this year because of enormousgas price increases, and that probably will continue into 2001,said Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) E&P analysts in their 19thannual worldwide E&P spending survey.

Standard & Poor’s held a conference call Wednesday todeclare that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern CaliforniaEdison risk default and bankruptcy within weeks and are likely tosee their credit ratings fall to junk grades if they don’t get helpfrom regulators within 24 to 48 hours.

Just two weeks after unveiling plans to build a pipeline totransport Alaskan North Slope gas to the Lower 48, BP has teamed upwith Chevron Corp. and Burlington Resources Inc. to produce gas inthe Canadian Arctic. Although no timetable was released, thecompanies said this week they will spend “considerable resources”to build a production base in the Mackenzie Delta.

In an emergency motion filed at FERC this week, eight powermarketers serving California asked the Commission to bar theCal-ISO and Cal-PX from disclosing confidential information abouttheir companies and/or practices — absent adequateconfidentiality safeguards — to state agencies investigating theout-of-control electricity market in the state.

Avista Corp., rocked by early cold weather and increased loadsthat reduced profit within its utilities division, now expects toreport better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter, drivenby its non-regulated energy trading arm, Avista Energy.

A little over a month after SCANA Corp. announced it had enteredinto an agreement with the Fayetteville Public Works Commission(PWC) to jointly build and own a natural gas-fired 500 MW powerfacility in Fayetteville, NC, the company reported that the deal isdead.

In a planned move to dump its mature shelf properties andconcentrate on new exploration opportunities, EEX Corp. is sellingits interests in nearly 100 offshore lease blocks in the shallowerwaters of the Gulf of Mexico to an undisclosed buyer for $60million. The properties contain estimated proved reserves of 58Bcfe, of which 33% are proved producing, as of Oct. 1.

Seizing upon a deadline ultimatum recently issued by FERC forthe proposed Independence Pipeline and associated SupplyLinkexpansion, Pennsylvania Rep. Frank LaGrotta has called on theCommission to revoke the certificate for the construction of thecontroversial, multi-state project.

Exxon Mobil Corp. will appeal a record $3.5 billion verdictannounced yesterday by an Alabama jury, which found the oil companyhad defrauded the state and underpaid royalties on natural gas wellleases in state waters. The case centered on charges that theenergy giant had underpaid up to $87.7 million in royalties on theMobile Bay natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico.