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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 30, 2004**

**Highlights / Major Developments**

**AEP Working on Power Outages**\
American Electric Power crews hope to have all homes in the city
(Reynoldsburg, Ohio) that lost electricity due to last week\'s ice storm
reconnected by Thursday night. As of 4 p.m. Monday, AEP said that about
4,000 homes in the Reynoldsburg area remained without power. Surrounding
cities including Bexley and Whitehall also had areas that were still
without power. The devastating ice storm that occurred last Wednesday
night and Thursday morning left nearly all of Reynoldsburg without power
and littered many residents\' lawns with downed trees and tree branches.
Nearly 500,000 people were without power in Franklin and surrounding
counties as a result of the storm.\
<http://www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek.php?edition=rey&story=thisweeknews/123004/rey/News/123004-News-500951.html>

**Electricity\
**

**Big Storm Pummels Los Angeles Region**

A powerful winter storm pounded the Southland on Wednesday, spawning a
mild tornado in Inglewood, leaving behind uprooted trees, traffic snarls
and power outages across the region, and dampening Rose Parade
activities in Pasadena. As of late Wednesday, 30,000 Edison customers
remained without power in communities from Frazier Park to Fullerton.
Since the rain began falling Sunday, 250,000 customers have had
electricity service interrupted, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for
Edison.\
<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rain30dec30,1,7720493.story?coll=la-headlines-california>

**Western Storm Forces Evacuations**\
A powerful storm battered the West for a third straight day Wednesday,
forcing dozens of people from their homes, sending recreational vehicles
floating down a flooded creek in Arizona and turning California freeways
into a virtual demolition derby. The storm spawned a tornado in Southern
California and left 140,000 customers without power in the area while
making for treacherous driving conditions. The storm also affected
Nevada and Arizona with heavy rains and brought heavy snow and high
winds to Utah, where hundreds of people were evacuated from low-lying
areas.

<http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1042600&t=Nation+%2F+World&c=26,1042600>

<http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/12/29/88649.php?sps=rgj.com&sch=LocalNews&sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news>

<http://www.sgvtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,205~12220~2625542,00.html>

<http://www.whittierdailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,207~12026~2625354,00.html>

<http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2625652,00.html>

**Ontario Brighton Beach Power Plant Returns to Service**

The 580-megawatt Brighton Beach natural gas-fired power plant in Ontario
shut early Wednesday returned to service Thursday, the Ontario
Independent Electricity Market Operator said in a report. The Brighton
Beach station is located in the town of Windsor across the Detroit River
from Detroit, Michigan.

Reuters, 07:39 December 30, 2004

**Salem Unit 1 Returns to Full Power**

Unit 1 at Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.\'s Salem nuclear reactor
in southern New Jersey returned to full power early Thursday following
repairs to a steam-generator pump. On December 26, 2004, output at the
1,096-megawatt Unit 1 was reduced to 25 percent of capacity to perform
the repairs. The facility is located in Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey
across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Delaware. The adjacent
1,092-megawatt Unit 2 is operating at full power, according to the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission\'s daily reactor status report.

Reuters, 11:49, December 30, 2004

# Calpine's 286 MW Delta Gas-fired Unit in CA Shut Down

Reuters, 14:25 December 30, 2004

# CDWR's 933 MW Hyatt-Hydro Unit in CA Shut Down

Reuters, 14:25 December 30, 2004

# DTE's 259 MW La Paloma Gas-fired Unit in CA Shut Down

Reuters, 14:25 December 30, 2004

# Sempra's 380 MW Mexicali Gas-fired Unit in Baja Mexico Shut Down

Reuters, 14:25 December 30, 2004

**Petroleum**

**Nigeria Chief Says Chevron Dispute Over**\
A Nigerian community, which forced ChevronTexaco to shut in 20,000
barrels per day of crude for weeks, has ended its dispute with the U.S.
company. Villagers from the Niger Delta village of Kula besieged three
flow stations operated by Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell on December 5 in
a dispute over jobs and development, forcing the companies to shut in a
total of 120,000 bpd. Kula chief Anab Sara-Igbe told Reuters on Thursday
his community had signed a memorandum of understanding with Chevron
earlier this week. He also said his community was in talks with Shell
that were expected to lead to the re-opening of Shell\'s 100,000 bpd
output.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/041230/energy_nigeria_dispute_1.html>

**Lyondell Citgo Texas Refinery Compressor Shut**

Lyondell Citgo Refining shut down a coker compressor at its
260,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Houston, Texas, according to a
company filing with state regulators. The refinery has 97,000-bpd coker
capacity in two units. The company reported the \"loss of 737 Coker
Compressor C-201\" in a filing on the Web site of the Texas Commission
for Environmental Quality. The cause of the failure was still under
investigation. The filing did not say whether there was any loss of
production or whether other coking units were shut.

Reuters 09:23, December 30, 2004.

**Statoil Won\'t Be Allowed to Reopen Oil Fields by End of Year**

Statoil ASA, Norway\'s largest oil company will have to wait until next
year to restore daily production of 205,000 barrels of oil from two
North Sea fields that were shut down by a leak a month ago. Statoil,
which had aimed to reopen the Snorre A and Vigdis platforms before the
end of the year, still lacks the necessary verification that it\'s safe
to start pumping oil, Inger Anda, a spokeswoman at Norway\'s Petroleum
Safety Authority, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Reuters 08:50, December 30, 2004.

# 

# Natural Gas

### **Nothing to report.**

**Other News**

Nothing to report.

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /30/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 43.36     | 44.05     | 32.51      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.02      | 7.05      | 5.76       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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