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No one can really predict the weather, “but at the rate winteris setting in, by the middle of February we’ll be where we usuallyare in April” in regard to natural gas in storage, according toThomas A. Petrie, chairman of Petrie Parkman & Co. in Denver.

In the waning day of the Clinton administration, Chairman FrankMurkowski (R-AK) and four other Republican members of the SenateEnergy and Natural Resources Committee have called on the presidentto refrain from enacting regulations that could put off limits evenmore federal lands for natural gas and oil producers. Such actionwould only aggravate the current gas price and supply crisis, theysaid.

Despite the desperate need for natural gas currently, long-haulpipeline construction is headed for a temporary lull over the nextfive years, according to Thomas Howard, director of strategicproducts at PIRA Energy Group, a New York City-based energyconsulting firm.

From FERC hearing rooms to California courtrooms the lawyers andregulators are huddling to bring some order to the chaotic westernenergy markets and address the muddled future of California’s onceomnipotent-appearing private sector utilities. Energy industry,political and regulatory heavyweights are mixing it up, includingthe closed-door FERC-called session in Washington, DC.

A rich pocket of natural gas in the shallow waters off the coastof Mississippi is paying off handsomely for Chevron U.S.A.Production Co., which said yesterday that production has more thantripled this year in its Viosca Knoll Carbonate Trend to 230MMcf/d, up from 60 MMcf/d in 1999.

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.

After struggling through an extended state approval process thatwas only revitalized earlier in the year with a uniquemobile-source air emissions credit deal, San Francisco-basedPG&E Corp. Monday completed a deal to sell the development andoperating rights for its proposed 500 MW Otay Mesa power projectsouth of San Diego to Calpine Corp., San Jose, CA, the aggressivemerchant power plant developer.

Southern Energy Inc. took a giant leap into the Mid-Atlanticpower market yesterday by completing the purchase of 5,154 MW ofpower generation from Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) for anet price of $2.65 billion.