![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.5in" height="3.5027777777777778in"}U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**January 25, 2005**

# Electricity

#  Leak forces Michigan nuclear plant shutdown

A water leak at the Fermi II nuclear power plant outside Monroe,
Michigan, forced a shutdown of the facility Monday, but no radioactivity
was reported to have escaped and no evacuations have been ordered,
authorities said. Lorie Kessler, a spokeswoman for Detroit Edison, which
operates the plant, said the plant shutdown around 4:20 p.m. after water
began leaking into the containment vessel at a rate of about 50 gallons
per minute. \"There\'s no indication of a radioactive release,\" she
said.

<http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/25/nuclear.plant/index.html>

# DC Pacific Intertie, Reopens Late Tuesday Jan 25

The DC Pacific Intertie is a key link between the Northwest and
California with a southbound capacity of 2,990 megawatts.\
Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# Crocket's 240 MW Gas-fired Cogen Plant in CA Shut on Jan 24

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# 

# Dynergy/NRG's 335 MW Gas-fired El Segundo 4 Unit in CA Shut on Jan 24

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# Reliant's 215 MW Gas-fired Mandalay 1 Unit in CA Shut on Jan 24

# Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# 

# Sempra's 324 MW Gas-fired Elk Hills Unit in CA Shut on Jan 25

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# 

# Reliant's 294 MW Gas-fired Etiwanda 3 Unit in CA Shut on Jan 25

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# 

# Reliant's 320 MW Gas-fired Etiwanda 4 Unit in CA Shut on Jan 25

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# 

# Constellation's 454 MW Gas-fired High Desert Unit in CA Shut on Jan 25

Reuters, 1346 January 25, 2005

# AEP's Cook 2 Nuke Returns to Full Power

In Michigan, AEP\'s Cook 2 nuclear plant returned to full power. AEP
took the unit off line over the weekend to look into a problem with a
control rod drive mechanism.\
Reuters, 1332 January 25, 2005

# San Antonio Power Line Suit \'is a Certainty\'

The debate over the route for City Public Service\'s Cagnon-Kendall
power line is far from over, despite the City Council\'s 6-4 vote early
Friday giving CPS permission to begin acquiring the easements. The
council approved two ordinances giving CPS the authority to acquire
private property and city-owned conservation land in Northwest Bexar
County for the 60-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line that will skirt
the Government Canyon State Natural Area on land voters had chosen to
set aside for parks.
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5418854>

**Petroleum\
**

**Fuel Storage Tank Explodes on Long Island---Police**\
A diesel fuel storage tank in Holtsville, Long Island, exploded and
burned early Tuesday, police said. The tank, owned by Northville
Industries, has a capacity of 609,000 gallons of fuel, but was holding
only 90,000 gallons at the time of the blast. The fire burnt itself
out.\
Reuters, 1240 January 25, 2005

# U.S. Allows Drilling on Sensitive New Mexico Lands

The Bush administration has approved oil and natural gas drilling on
federal lands in the Otero Mesa in Mew Mexico, despite pleas from the
state\'s governor and environmentalists to protect the desert grassland
from energy exploration. The decision mirrors the White House\'s
national energy plan to open more federal lands to drilling to boost
domestic oil and gas supplies. There will be only 141 exploratory wells
drilled, resulting in up to 84 producing wells, at most, the BLM said.

Reuters, 1411 January 25, 2005

**ConocoPhillips Says Runs Cut at Louisiana Refinery**\
ConocoPhillips has reduced run rates at its 257,000 barrels per day
refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, after a Sunday fire, a company
spokeswoman said Tuesday. ConocoPhillips confirmed that an \"operational
upset\" caused a \"brief fire\" at the company\'s Alliance refinery in
Belle Chasse. The company confirmed that the fire occurred in one of the
refinery\'s \"operational units,\" but would not specify and, citing
company policy, would not say what percentage of crude runs were cut or
how long the reduction would last.\
Reuters, 1145 January 25, 2005\
\
**Oil Nears \$50 After U.S. Refinery Snag**\
U.S. oil prices flirted with \$50 on Tuesday, jumping to their highest
level in eight weeks after a fire at a big Louisiana refinery slowed the
plant\'s fuel production. New York crude settled up 83 cents to \$49.64
a barrel, after hitting a peak of \$49.75 in open-call trade, the
highest level since Nov. 30. London Brent gained 95 cents to \$46.96 a
barrel after hitting \$46.99, the highest since Nov. 4. Dealers said the
strength tracked a rally in gasoline futures after ConocoPhillips
confirmed it had been forced to slow production at its Belle Chasse,
Louisiana, refinery after a fire on the weekend.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/050125/markets_oil_6.html>

**Statoil Unsure of Snorre Restart**

Norwegian energy group Statoil welcomed a green light for a full
resumption of oil output at its partly shut Snorre North Sea oilfield on
Monday but said it was too early to say when it would restart.

Oil Daily, January 25, 2005

**Shell Shuts in 35,000 bpd in Nigeria Due Protest**\
Royal Dutch Shell Group has shut 35,000 barrels per day of crude oil
production in Nigeria\'s southeastern Abia state following community
protests, a company spokesman said on Tuesday. Shell, which pumps about
a million barrels daily from the world\'s eighth largest exporter, has
recently been recovering from a series of shut-ins in neighboring Rivers
state which hit 140,000 bpd last month.

Reuters, 1438 January 25, 2005

**Silver Eagle Refinery Fire Not Expected to Have Much Impact on
Diesel**

A fire at the Silver Eagle refinery in Woods Cross, Utah late on Sunday
that started in a furnace that produces diesel has been put out and is
expected not to have a large impact on diesel supplies in the Salt Lake
City area.\
OPIS Price Watch Alert, 1343 January 25, 2005

**Natural Gas**

**Tri-Valley Begins McClure Drilling**

Tri-Valley Oil & Gas said Monday it has started drilling operations for
dry natural gas in the tight McClure

Shale formation near Delano, California. The field could contain up to
3.3 Tcf of natural gas, according to Bakersfield, California-based
Tri-Valley.

Oil Daily, January 25, 2005

<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/gas/news_article.cfm?id=5418748>nternational

**Other News**

Nothing to report.

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (1        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /25/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 49.43     | 48.46     | 34.94      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.44      | 6.69      | 5.82       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **Henry Hub**                 |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Million Btu                |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+

> Source: Reuters

**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