Energy, Energy Service, Natural Gas &amp; Oil Sectors

Top 520. Jul 3, 2001 6:33 PM

» lcha - Not here you don't

Well, it looks like drilling offshore Florida is off limits now.(GW didn't want to spoil the Thanksgiving family gettogethers). Along with offshore CA and our sacred part of Alaska.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Just a reminder, the U.S. currently comsumes 19 MILLION barrels of oil and 61 Billion cubic feet of NG PER DAY.

For the E&P companies I invest in, just finding a 1 BCF field would be a company making event. It would bring in $183M at $3 gas and would probably triple the share price of a PLLL overnight. We are using 61 of these fields PER DAY. Staggering.

-- posted by lcha

Top 521. Jul 3, 2001 6:38 PM

» lcha - Re: Re: positive NG

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Glad to have you back Jen! I hope you vacation was relaxing and refreshing.

Unfortunately, the energy graphs seemed to have rolled over while you were gone.

-- posted by lcha

Top 522. Jul 3, 2001 11:47 PM

» JenL_2 - ? for Icha

This post copied from the "Gas Prices" thread:

Author: way2go
Date: June 28, 2001 10:27 AM
Subject: ? for Icha

Do you think the small independant producers like APA will make good??

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 523. Jul 4, 2001 6:37 AM

» lcha - Price caps don't work

July 3, 2001, 10:05PM

Nevada cites power prices in blackouts
Federal controls tightened supply, authorities contend
By JAMES STERNGOLD
New York Times

LOS ANGELES -- Officials in California and Nevada said Tuesday that the controls the federal government recently imposed on wholesale electricity prices throughout the Western states appeared to have caused some generators to withhold supplies, worsening power shortages this week.

The Las Vegas area experienced its first power blackouts on Monday. California avoided blackouts, but on Monday and again Tuesday it declared a Stage 2 alert, its middle category of tight supply.

Heat throughout the Southwest -- Las Vegas recorded temperatures near 120 degrees on Monday -- and the closing of some Nevada power plants for repairs contributed to the problems.

But state and utility officials said the federal price restraints, put in place on June 19 after months of debate, seemed to have had the perverse effect of reducing supplies when they were most needed.

That outcome appears likely to reignite the battle between the Bush administration and Gov. Gray Davis of California on the usefulness of price caps.

The price controls put in place last month, adopted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are based on an enormously complex formula that has sown confusion in the markets. Under the process, the level at which the caps are set can change rapidly. Generators say the system is so complex and so changeable that they do not always know how much they will wind up being paid for a given amount of power.

Oscar Hidalgo, the spokesman for the Department of Water Resources, the California agency that buys most of the state's power on the wholesale market, said that confusion among the generating companies caused them to hold back about 600 megawatts of power -- the equivalent of the output of about two large plants -- at critical times Monday.

"A lot of generators were telling us that they were uncertain what they would be paid, and so they didn't want to take the risk," Hidalgo said. "That's basically what pushed us into the Stage 2 alert on Monday."

Paul Heagen, a spokesman for the Nevada Power Co., the utility for most of Nevada, said that as conditions there worsened on Monday, some suppliers appeared at least to delay offering power, or may have even held back as much as 200 megawatts.

That critical shortfall at the peak demand, in late afternoon, contributed to about 45 minutes of blackouts, affecting some 10,000 homes in the Las Vegas area.

Heagen, too, said that uncertainty among the generators over how much they would be paid under the complex federal pricing formula caused the problem.

"We know this was not the intention of the price controls, but they are having a chilling effect on supply," he said. The generating companies "don't know how much they're going to get paid for the power, so they are reluctant."

Cynthia Messina, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the utility, said the state was analyzing the data and had drawn no firm conclusions yet on what occurred.

The confusion developed because the cap placed on prices changes periodically, depending on conditions.

Generally, the price is set at how much it costs the least efficient power plant in the state of California to produce electricity. That price is largely determined by the cost of fuel -- typically natural gas -- plus the plant's operating and maintenance costs.

Because power plants can be pulled out of the system for maintenance or placed back on line, the least efficient plant -- the one being used as the standard for pricing -- can change. In addition, natural gas prices have tumbled in recent weeks, putting downward pressure on the caps.

But perhaps the greatest uncertainty lies in the fact that the cap is reset only when the California market is in a Stage 1 alert -- that is, when supplies slip below 7 percent more than actual demand -- for an hour or more.

As in California, the problems in Nevada are not likely to go away quickly. On Monday, the state was hurt because several large plants were down for repairs. But Nevada has also run into soaring demand for power, partly because of a spurt in growth and partly for reasons that the utility says it does not understand.

Heagen, the Nevada Power spokesman, said peak demand at the beginning of July 2000 was 3,280 megawatts; on Monday the peak was 4,250 megawatts. He said that about a third of that increase was a result of higher temperatures, and about a third a product of population growth.

The other third, he said, is a puzzle, but it does not appear that it will just go away.

Kirk, I tried the pasting into Word and replacing the ^p^p with [ppp] then deleting the ^p. This had the effect of deleting all the paragraph breaks. I previewed this article and it looks PERFECT on my screen(19'' monitor, 1280x1024,true bit color).

Is this article not displaying properly on your screen and is everybody else having a problem?

-- posted by lcha

Top 524. Jul 4, 2001 6:53 AM

» Rande - Re: Price caps don't work

In response to message posted by lcha:

Price caps work just fine. After all, under the regulated utility system we had for around seventy years that's exactly what we had and there were never any problems. If only these companies would spend half the effort at delivering what they're supposed to deliver instead of keeping their teams of lawyers busy trying to find loopholes in an obviously flawed system. Hopefully FERC can clear up their price cap scheme and add some teeth -- mandate that energy producers provide power when they are able or face stiff penalties. In the meantime, new power plants are coming on line and the deregulatory system is being overhauled so that we shouldn't have to live too long under what amount to emergency conditions. Saw the other day that Californians had cut power consumption in June by over 12% from last year. Now, it's time for the power generators to act like good citizens. We'll get through if everyone concerned does their part.

-- posted by Rande

Top 525. Jul 4, 2001 7:09 AM

» lcha - Re: Re: Price caps don't work

In response to message posted by Kirk:

Kirk, sorry for belaboring the formating issue but I copied the last article directly from the website. I didn't use the Word formatted article as it deleted all the paragraph breaks. I'm not sure what is going on here with the formatting.

-- posted by lcha

Top 526. Jul 4, 2001 7:23 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Article Formating

In response to message posted by lcha:

Icha - Your last article posted was fine, and the one that Kirk complained about previously did indeed have breaks in the text. This usually happens when you copy an article from email or from a few websites using a certain format. If you hit "Preview Message" before you hit "Post Message" you can see the broken text lines. To get rid of the broken lines just delete the space at the end of each line of text and then add a space to the beginning of the next line of text. Hit "preview message" and if it's OK then hit "Post Message". I always preview my posts, and sometimes go back several times to make corrections, and still make mistakes!......Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 527. Jul 4, 2001 7:44 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: Refund

In response to message posted by lcha:

Here - Let's remove the line breaks from this post:

Author: lcha
Date: June 25, 2001 7:39 AM
Subject: Refund

Looks like a $1.25 Billion refund is in order.

June 23, 2001, 11:51AM

Oil, gas exploration halted off California
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmentalists who prize California's central coastline rejoiced after a federal judge halted oil and natural gas exploration, while petroleum companies that have paid $1.25 billion for ocean leases were left wondering whether their investments will ever be profitable.

U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled the areas off San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties cannot be drilled or explored until the federal government studies the environmental impacts and the California Coastal Commission approves of the plan.

"This is good news, Californians prize their coast and additional oil development has no place here," said Bruce Hamilton, national conservation director for the Sierra Club. "It's good to know those promoting it have been set back and eventually we need permanent protection."

all I did was delete the space at the end of each line that was broken and then added a space. Hit "preview message" ....voila line breaks are gone.....then hit "post message"......Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 528. Jul 4, 2001 7:51 AM

» JenL_2 - Re: NG pricing

In response to message posted by lcha:

Now let's fix this one:

Author: lcha
Date: June 25, 2001 8:20 AM
Subject: NG pricing

Natural-Gas Prices Take Sudden Drop, But How Long Will the "Low" Prices Last? - By Will McNamara

Much lower demand and a flood of supply on the California gas pipeline grid late last week led to sharply lower spot natural-gas prices, especially at the California border where prices dropped $5-$6/MMBtu. Mild temperatures and more power coming into the state from the Pacific Northwest took most of the credit for the price decreases. Wholesale prices at the California border plummeted to lows around $3.20/MMBtu at the Topock, Ariz., connection into Southern California Gas. The previous Friday (June 1), the
Southern California Border average was $9.24/MMBtu.

Analysis: The sudden drop in natural-gas prices marks the first time in nearly a year that spot market averages have remained in the $4.00/MMBtu range. In fact, prices in the range of $3.50 to $4 per MMBtu have not been tracked since July 2000. While the current drop was anticipated as a result of stabilization in the market, an interesting dynamic to the falling prices is the extent to which the industry paradigm has shifted with regard to our definition of "low prices." Yes, the $4.00/MMBtu mark may seem low compared to the 12-month average, but it is still high when compared to the last 10 years. Further, as prices now appear more stabilized, traders may soon have to become accustomed to a basement price that still strikes some as excessively high for natural gas.

Before this price drop can be classified as just a West Coast development, it is important to note that gas prices are also falling in other regions of the country. For instance, the season's first tropical storm (Allison) cooled down Texas to the extent that futures prices for natural gas on the Henry Hub exchange finally fell below the $4.00/MMBtu mark for June deliveries into the range of $3.63 to $3.94/MMBtu (a drop not seen for the last 12 months). In addition, the Nymex July futures contract settled at $3.892/MMBtu, which was down about 17.7 cents.

actually my instructions above are incorrect - to get rid of the line breaks delete a space at the end of the broken lines (hit delete) and then immediately add a space (hit the spacebar)...that works......Jen

-- posted by JenL_2