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

**Office of Electricity Delivery and\
Energy Reliability**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 16, 2005**

## Highlights/Major Developments

***\
*Update: Ice Storm Renders 700,000 Powerless in Southern States, Could
Be Out for Days\
**More than 700,000 homes and businesses began the day Friday without
power after a frigid night allowed ice to build from a deadly storm in
the South. The outages were caused when ice-laden tree limbs fell onto
power lines. A Duke Power spokesman has said it will be "multiple days"
before service is restored to all because of the scale of the damage.\
<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-ice-storm,0,3067972.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines>\
<http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051216/NEWS01/51216009/1001>

**Storm Web Resources:**

> 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 MW Bruce 3 Nuke in Ontario Ramps Back Up**

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

**OPG's 525 MW Pickering 5 Nuke Unit in 2 Oil- and Gas-fired Power
Station Shut December 15**

Reuters, 15:13 December 16 2005

**OPG's 535 MW Lennox 3 Oil- and Gas-fired Power Station in Ontario
Returned to Service December 16**

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

**OPG's 5354 MW Nanticoke Unit 5 Coal-fired Unit Shut December 16,
2005**

**OPG's 490 MW Nanticoke Unit 7 Coal-fired Unit Ramped Back up December
16**

Reuters, 13:19 December 16 2005

**BLM to Speed Wind Energy Development; Norton Sees Sixfold Growth**

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.

<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/9377103.xml?S=n>

**Update: Valero Says Restoring Texas City Refinery Output**

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**](http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-well-explosion,0,2344939.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines)

Reuters, 13:47 December 16, 2005

**East Tennessee Lateral Project Gets Environmental Nod**

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.

[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5D%5Bfilkqvx%5BTjgw11rbfek%5Cv](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5D%5Bfilkqvx%5BTjgw11rbfek\v)

**Hurricane Recovery Updates**

December 15 was the last scheduled hurricane emergency situation report
for 2005. Updates on the status of energy infrastructure restoration
efforts related to hurricane damage will be posted in the Energy
Assurance Daily in this section of the report. For past Gulf Coast
Hurricanes situation reports, see the website of the Office of
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) of the U.S. Department
of Energy at:
[[http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov]{.underline}](http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/).

######## 

######## 

######## 

######## 

######## Gulf Coast Shut-in Production Per Day Ivan vs. Katrina/ Rita vs. Most Recent

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

Normal Production in the Gulf Coast is 10 BCF/day of gas and 1,500,000
bbls/day of oil.

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

**Gulf Coast Shut-in Production Cumulative**

Katrina/ Rita vs. Ivan

+--------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
|              | **Ivan**                | ####### Katrina/ Rita       |
+--------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
| **           | **9/13/04 - 02/14/05**  | **8/26/05 -- 12/15/05**     |
| Cumulative** |                         |                             |
+--------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
| **Gas**      | **172.259**             | **532.932**                 |
| (BCF)        |                         |                             |
+--------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+
| **Oil**      | **43,841,245**          | **102,973,119**             |
| (bbls)       |                         |                             |
+--------------+-------------------------+-----------------------------+

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

Beginning Monday, December 12, 2005, MMS will issue Hurricane
Katrina/Hurricane Rita Evacuation and Production Shut-in Statistics
twice a week.  The report will be posted on the
[www.mms.gov](../www.mms.gov%20) website at 2:00 p.m. EST on Mondays and
Thursdays.

######## Other News

Nothing to Report.

######## Energy Prices 

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /16/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 58.01     | 59.41     | 44.16      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 13.36     | 15.02     | 6.88       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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 1:00 pm 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 on Thursdays*

**Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration Website** from
ISER/OE/DOE

[http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov](http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/)

*Updated after 5:00 pm (Mon. thru Fri.) with latest Energy Assurance
Daily; previous Energy Assurance Daily and emergency situation reports
are also posted on the website.*