![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.75in" height="3.6055555555555556in"}U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

**Office of Energy Assurance**

ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY

###### April 23, 2004

**Highlights / Major Developments**

**Sanctions Eased on Libya, its oil sector and US investment**\
The United States eased an economic embargo against Libya on Friday,
allowing purchases of Libyan oil and resumption of most trade to reward
Tripoli for giving up its weapons of mass destruction, the White House
said. <http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040423/libya_sanctions_factbox_1.html>

**Electricity**

**PPL Susquehanna Unit 1 Returns to Service**\
Unit 1 at PPL\'s Susquehanna nuclear power plant is again safely
producing electricity, now that workers have completed the facility\'s
exhaustive start-up procedures. Friday\'s (4/23) end to the unit\'s
refueling and inspection outage also marks the completion of the largest
improvement project in the plant\'s 20-year history. \"The upgrades
we\'ve completed during the Unit 1 outage, as well as those done last
spring on Unit 2, will provide increased generation capacity and further
position PPL as a major supplier of safe and reliable power for the
residents and businesses of northeastern Pennsylvania,\" said Herbert D.
Woodeshick, special assistant to the president for PPL Susquehanna.
\"This major investment in the plant boosts efficiency so Susquehanna is
now producing about 4 percent more power while using the same amount of
fuel,\" he said. <http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040423/phf057_1.html>

**Alliant\'s Iowa Duane Arnold nuke exits outage, up to 27 pct**\
Alliant Energy Corp.\'s (NYSE:[LNT](http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=lnt) -
[News](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=lnt)) 580 megawatt Duane Arnold
nuclear unit in Iowa exited a work outage and ramped up to 27 percent of
capacity by early Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its
power reactor status report. The unit had been shut since about April
19.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040423/utilities_alliant_duanearnold_1.html>

**PSEG\'s N.J. Hope Creek nuke up to 73 pct power**\
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.\'s 1,100 megawatt Hope Creek
nuclear unit in New Jersey ramped up to 73 percent of capacity by early
Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its daily reactor
status report. Since about April 12, the unit has slowly been ramping up
after exiting a work outage started on March 22. On Thursday, the unit
was operating at 45 percent of capacity.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040423/utilities_pseg_hopecreek_1.html>

#### NRC Renews License for Summer Nuclear Power Plant

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed on Friday for an
additional 20 years the operating license for the Summer nuclear power
plant, Unit 1, located in Fairfield County, South Carolina. The 1,000
megawatt reactor is operated by South Carolina Electric & Gas Company
(SCE&G), which is owned by Scana Corp.

Reuters, 1457 April 23, 2004

####### 

####### Petroleum

**Libya Confirms Oil Cargo to U.S.**\
Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Friday it had
confirmed its first cargo to the United States in more than 20 years for
loading in May after Washington lifted many of its economic sanctions.
Abdullah Gheblawi, NOC\'s general manager for international marketing,
also told Reuters in a telephone interview that he expected the U.S.
decision to speed up the return of U.S. oil firms who abandoned assets
in Libya in the 1980s. He said the agreement was with a major U.S. oil
company for one million barrels of crude but would not name the firm. He
said they were flexible to increase that cargo to two million barrels if
needed. \"We confirmed one cargo to be loaded in May to the States,\"
Gheblawi said, adding that the last shipment of oil to the United States
was in about 1981. The shipment was expected to reach the United States
in late May or early June, he said. Gheblawi\'s comments came after
President Bush dramatically eased the U.S. trade embargo on Libya on
Friday to allow U.S. companies to resume most trade and buy Libyan oil
as a reward to Tripoli for giving up weapons of mass destruction. Bush
also withdrew the U.S. objection to Libya entering the World Trade
Organization, the latest sign of warming U.S.-Libyan ties since
Tripoli\'s December 19 announcement that it would cease pursing
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040423/energy_libya_sanctions_7.html>

#### Natural Gas 

**Calif. Regulators Want Jurisdiction on LNG Plant**\
California energy regulators on Thursday ordered a unit of Japan\'s
Mitsubishi Corp. to file for approval to build a proposed liquefied
natural gas (LNG) plant in Long Beach, California. The California Public
Utilities Commission also voted to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission to reconsider a ruling in March that said FERC has
jurisdiction over licensing the project. The California agency said
\"FERC has no basis for preempting the state\'s environmental
requirements\" for the proposed terminal.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040422/energy_lng_california_1.html>

##### Conoco Plans LNG Terminal

ConocoPhillips is proposing a second Gulf Coast site for an LNG import
terminal, this one offshore Dauphin Island, Alabama. The 1 Bcf/d Compass
Port facility would be located in federal waters about 15 miles south of
the Alabama mainland. Construction would begin in 2005, with startup in
early 2009.

Oil Daily, April 23, 2004

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####### Other

**Second New Coke Plant in the Works for Ohio**

A second new coke project is being put together in Ohio, with a
1.44-million-ton/year facility planned for the Toledo area by U.S.
Coking Group LLC. Last fall, the state Environmental Protection Agency
issued a permit to Sun Coal & Coke for a new plant at Haverhill, on the
Ohio River. Construction of that plant, which will turn out 550,000
tons/year of blast furnace coke, has begun, with completion due in early
2005. International Steel Group is the customer. In this latest case,
the OEPA has up for comment until May 24 a draft air permit for the FDS
Coke Plant LLC project, a \$200 million facility backed by U.S. Coking
Group. U.S. Coking is out of Detroit and headed by businessman Frank
Stella.

<http://www.platts.com/Coal/News/3020400.xml?S=n>

**Coal Trains Crawl Along, Sidetracking Shipments**\
Coal producers are enjoying a revival, with power companies increasing
their consumption of the fuel to generate electricity, but one issue is
fast becoming a thorn in their sides. Coal companies are seeing
deliveries to their customers delayed, slowing sales, as train operators
face service problems and derailments. A recovering economy has boosted
demand for rail service, putting pressure on the industry. \"Perhaps our
biggest concern during the remainder of the year is rail service,\" Arch
Coal Inc Chief Executive Steven Leer told analysts in a conference call
on Wednesday. Arch Coal, the second biggest U.S. coal producer, has so
far dealt with the nagging problem of getting its shipments to power
plants, Leer said, but if the bottlenecks persist, it \"is something
that could affect operations moving forward.\" Coal shipments from Arch
Coal\'s West Elk mine in Colorado were delayed in February when a bridge
partially collapsed and a Union Pacific Corp. train derailed. Union
Pacific has had seven trains derail since early February as congestion
on the tracks has risen, a spokesman for the company said. Union Pacific
is experiencing an increased appetite for its rail service, while
suffering from a crew shortage. Under pressure to keep up, the company
is asking some customers to shift their shipments to trucks. The largest
U.S. grain hauler, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., also is trying to
keep pace. Meanwhile, Peabody Energy Corp. Chief Executive Irl
Engelhardt told analysts earlier this week that there have been \"an
unusual number of derailments\" out West. Shipments, he said, also have
suffered from snow and ice storms in the East, and that \"the net of all
of that was to affect our sales. \"We expect the Western rail issues to
continue for a month or two,\" the head of the St. Louis-based coal
company said. \"But we are hopeful that they will be behind them and
things will move very smoothly.\" Coal producers such as Arch Coal,
Peabody, Consol Energy and Massey Energy showed this week they are in
good shape, reporting big improvements in their earnings. Still, analyst
Bill Burns of Johnson Rice & Co. said the rail issue is boosting costs
and holding up sales. \"If you\'re supposed to deliver a ton of coal at
the end of the quarter, and you can\'t get it done, and you have to wait
until next quarter, you\'ve incurred those costs, but you don\'t get to
book those revenues,\" he said. The rail companies are moving to address
the situation, with Union Pacific planning to add 4,200 jobs this year,
the company\'s spokesman said. Coal CEOs trust the rail operators can
iron out the wrinkles, and are keeping a watchful eye on the railroads.
\"Their business is very robust across maybe all of their business
segments, and that is obviously putting pressure on the rails,\" Leer
said in the conference call. \"So to say we\'re concerned is very
accurate. We\'re watching it very closely.\"
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/040423/energy_coal_deliveries_1.html>

**House members introduce energy efficiency, reliability bill**

US House members Randy Cunningham (Republican-California) and Ed Markey
(Democrat-Massachusetts) Thursday introduced legislation to provide
incentives for energy-efficiency technologies and to create mandatory
reliability standards for the nation\'s electric grid. The legislation
mirrors a bill (S 2311) introduced in the US Senate last week by Sen
Olympia Snowe (Republican-Maine) and Sen Dianne Feinstein
(Democrat-California). The bill

contains the grid reliability provisions of HR 6, the comprehensive
energy bill that passed the House last year, and provisions, its
sponsors say will save more than 12% of the nation\'s natural gas supply
a year through efficiencies and incentives to conserve. A broad energy
bill that includes an identical grid reliability measure has been
stymied in the Senate since last year over lawmakers concerns about its
cost and other provisions.
[http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/News/5710526.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Electric Power/News/5710526.xml?S=n)

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (4        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /23/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 37.06     | 37.70     | 28.04      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.52      | 5.62      | 5.58       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **Henry Hub**                 |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Million Btu                |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+

> Sources: Reuters (week ago and year ago); Bloomberg News (Latest)

**This Week in Petroleum** from the Energy Information Administration
(EIA)

[*http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp*](http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp)

Updated on Wednesdays

**Weekly Petroleum Status Report** from EIA**\
**[*http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html*](http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html)

Updated after 1:00pm (Eastern time) on Wednesdays

**Natural Gas Weekly Update** from EIA

[*http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngw/ngupdate.asp*](http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngw/ngupdate.asp)

Updated after 2:00 pm (Eastern time) on Thursdays