NGI Archives

Texas Utilities’ Offer for The Energy Group will not be referredto the United Kingdom’s Monopolies and Mergers Commission. TheEnergy Group noted the waiver and said it will advise shareholdersas soon as possible on what they should do regarding the offersfrom PacifiCorp and Texas Utilities.

Stone & Webster Development and PP&L Global Inc. haveformed a joint venture to build a 250-500 MW gas-fired, merchantpower plant in Wallingford, CT to compete in the New Englandelectricity market. The partners have a signed “exclusivityagreement” with the city government of Wallingford to develop theproject on the site of a small oil-fired power plant theWallingford Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is retiring.

Flatness dominated at nearly all market points Thursday, andseveral sources anticipate a softening mode today due both to thescreen’s decline Thursday and the usual slump of weekend usage.Also, a marketer said cooling weekend temperatures in Texas shoulddampen some of the recent air conditioning load in the state.

Just when it appeared the May Nymex contract was in a positionto resume its upward ways, the contract duped hopeful bullishtraders by falling 4.2 cents to $2.479 Thursday. Perhaps moreimportant than the magnitude of the loss is that May failed to moveabove resistance at $2.56, and that the contract spent time belowits significant $2.465 level for a time Thursday before recoveringduring its final half hour of trading.

In a move that could be replicated as other states open theirelectric markets, Southern California Edison, the nation’s secondlargest electric utility, has purchased options on 740 Bcf offuture natural gas supplies for an undisclosed price as a means ofhedging against what is expected to be a highly volatile wholesaleprice for electricity in California’s newly established mandatorywholesale spot market, called the Power Exchange (PX).

Washington Gas is expanding its customer choice program inMaryland, targeting 100,000 residential customers or one-third ofthe total, and all of its 25,000 commercial customers in the state.The company said it received approval for the expansion from theMaryland Public Service Commission.

Frequently faced with sharp criticism from industry and WallStreet for its estimates on everything from supply and demand tonatural gas prices, the Energy Information Administration earlierthis month publicly admitted there were serious errors over morethan a decade in its gas and oil drilling data.

Union Pacific Resources Group agreed to pay about $59 millionfor Occidental Petroleum’s interests in four oil and gas fields insouthwest Wyoming, 23 producing wells in Louisiana, increasedownership in the Masters Creek Gas Plant and nearly 127,000 netacres in the Louisiana extension of the Austin Chalk trend.

Inadequate reserve replacement last year should set off an alarmin the gas industry given continuing increases in gas demand,according to a new report by Arthur Andersen and John S. HeroldInc. Proved domestic gas reserves were essentially unchanged in1997 despite a 24% increase in extensions and discoveries to 10.1Tcf, the highest level of drillbit gas reserve additions in thefive-year study period, according to the study titled U.S. UpstreamPerformance Trends. The study noted, however, that negative reserverevisions of 1 Tcf, including a 623 Bcf downward revision by EEXCorp. and smaller downward revisions by Amoco, Mobil and PioneerNatural Resources, are included in the figures.