Highlights/Major Developments

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Highlights/Major Developments

Appalachian Power Outages: http://www.appalachianpower.com/news/outages/viewstorm.asp?stormID=439

Dominion Power Outage Map: http://www.dom.com/news/outage_map.jsp

Duke Power Storm Updates: http://www.dukepower.com/news/releases/

Georgia Power Storm News:

http://newsinfo.southernco.com/home.asp?mnuOpco=gpc&mnuType=sub&mnuItem=ni

Hart EMC Outage Map http://www.hartemc.com/website/outzone/viewer.htm

Nashville Electric Outage Map: http://www.nespower.com/OutageMap/OutageMap.htm

Electricity



Progress Energy’s 900 MW Brunswick 2 Nuke in North Carolina Ramps Up

Progress Energy's 900-megawatt unit 2 at the Brunswick nuclear power station in North Carolina ramped up to 71 percent of capacity by early Friday. The company reduced the unit to about half power to work on the condenser and a recirculating water pump.

Reuters, 07:11 December 16, 2005
Wisconsin Energy’s 512 MW Point Beach 1 Nuke in Wisconsin Exits Outage
Wisconsin Energy Corp.'s 512-megawatt unit 1 at the Point Beach nuclear power station in Wisconsin exited an outage and ramped up to 28 percent of capacity by early Friday. Nuclear Management Co., of Hudson, Wisconsin, which operates the plant, shut the plant on Dec. 13 due to the failure of a circulating water pump that affected the condenser vacuum.

Reuters, 07:16 December 16, 2005

Bruce Power’s 750-megawatt unit 3 at the Bruce A nuclear power station in Ontario returned to service on Thursday following repairs to a main heat transport pump motor. The company shut the unit on Dec. 11 for the work.

Reuters, 11:29 December 16, 2005
OPG’s 535 MW Lennox 2 Oil- and Gas-fired Power Station in Ontario Shut December 15

Reuters, 15:13 December 16 2005

Reuters, 15:13 December 16 2005

Ontario Power Generation's 535-megawatt unit 3 at the Lennox oil- and natural gas-fired power station in Ontario returned to service by early Friday. The unit shut short-term unplanned work by early Thursday.

Reuters, 12:15 December 16 2005
OPG’s 490 MW Nanticoke Unit 5 Coal-fired Unit in Ontario Shut December 16,

OPG’s 490 MW Nanticoke Unit 7 Coal-fired Unit in Ontario Ramped Back up December 16

Reuters, 13:19 December 16 2005

Reuters, 13:19 December 16 2005

Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Thursday announced a new process for reviewing proposed wind farms that she said could result in a sixfold increase in wind energy production on Western public lands. The move set new guidelines that should decrease the time to get approval for a wind energy project from two or more years to less than one year, Norton said.

AP, December 15, 2005

InfraSource Completes 500kV Transmission Line in Washington State
InfraSource Services, Inc. today announced that it recently completed its construction on Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) Schultz-Wautoma 500kV transmission line project in Central Washington.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051215/20051215005891.html?.v=1
Petroleum
Update: Giant plans two-stage restart from Jan 15 at Yorktown refinery

Giant Industries' 62,000 b/d refinery in Yorktown, Virginia, is to be brought back on-stream in two stages following the fire which occurred on Nov 25, the Arizona-based company said late Thursday. Certain units are expected to return to operation on January 15 while others are targeted for March 30. In the interim period, the refinery will operate at 40,000 b/d.

Valero Energy Corp. said on Friday it was restoring production at its 210,000 barrel per day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery to full capacity after it was reduced Wednesday. A Wednesday afternoon lightning strike on a boiler serving the refinery led to a 20,000 bpd cut in production by the refinery's 210,000 bpd crude distillation unit. Output from the refinery's 83,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit was reduced by 8,000 bpd.

Reuters, 15:49 December 16, 2005

Natural Gas

Production Starts at World's Largest Natural Gas Plant in Trinidad
A multinational consortium began producing liquid natural gas Friday in the southern Trinidadian town of Point Fortin, significantly boosting one of the world's main producers of the energy source. The Atlantic LNG Train 4 plant is expected to produce 5.2 million metric tons (5.7 tons) of liquid natural gas per year. In recent years, the two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago has become the leading supplier of liquid natural gas to the United States, accounting for about 75 percent of imports.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051216/trinidad_natural_gas.html?.v=1

NYMEX January Gas Plummets 89.8 Cents Lower Despite Big Draw

Despite a larger than expected draw from stocks this morning, NYMEX January natural gas could not muster enough momentum to climb back over $15.00. Instead, the front month contract succumbed to a second consecutive session of heavy profit taking, which left it at $13.781, a whopping 89.8 cents under yesterday.

Btu’s Daily Gas Wire, December 15, 2005

Texas Gas Well Explodes, Ignites More Fires
A natural gas well exploded and ignited secondary fires early Friday in Palo Pinto, Texas. The explosion shook the area and caused a flash of light visible for 100 miles. The secondary fires were put out, but the residual gas was still burning hours after the 2 a.m. blast, said Palo Pinto County Sheriff Ira Mercer.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-well-explosion,0,2344939.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Duke Energy's East Tennessee Natural Gas pipeline on Tuesday received environmental clearance from FERC for a proposed lateral in southwestern Virginia that would provide Appalachian natural gas producers with access to more markets.

	Ivan	Katrina/Rita	Most Recent
Gas (BCF/day)	6.515 65.15% (High- 9/16/04)	9.418 94.18% (High- 8/30/05)	2.228 22.28% (12/15/05)
Oil (bbls/day)	1,410,002 94.00% (High- 9/16/04)	1,564,679 100.00% (High-9/26/05)	426,282 28.42% (12/15/05)

Source: U.S. MMS, December 15, 2005.

Katrina/ Rita vs. Ivan

	Latest (12/16/05)	Week Ago	Year Ago
CRUDE OIL West Texas Intermediate US $/Barrel	58.01	59.41	44.16
NATURAL GAS Henry Hub $/Million Btu	13.36	15.02	6.88