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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**February 3, 2005**

**Electricity**

**Clay Boswell Energy Center No. 3 Cooling Tower Down\
350 MW Unit Off Line for 3 Weeks; Energy Bought Elsewhere\
**A collapse in the Clay Boswell Energy Center No. 3 cooling tower has
put the unit down for approximately three weeks, according to one
Minnesota Power official, but will not impact the company\'s ability to
provide electricity to its customers. At about 9 p.m. last Thursday,
four cells of eight within the No. 3 cooling unit quit, forcing the
company to shut down operations on the No. 3 unit. No one was hurt in
the incident because no one was in the area at the time of the collapse.
The cause of the collapse is unknown.\
<http://www.virginiamn.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=1&story_id=192807>

**Moss Landing Plant has Start-up Failure**\
The 510 MW Unit 2 at the Moss Landing gas-fired plant in California
suffered a start-up failure early Thursday but the problem was soon
corrected and it was back up an hour later.

Reuters, 1400 February 3, 2005\
\
\
**Petroleum**

**Shell Canada Oil Sands Plant Back at 160,000 bpd**

Shell Canada\'s oil sands processing plant output is back to full
capacity after repairs to a unit which has been shut down since October,
its chief executive said on Thursday. The plant is running at 160,000
barrels per day, chief executive Clive Mather told a conference.\
Reuters, 0552 February 3, 2005

**CanWest Petroleum Prepares for Aggressive Exploration Drilling
Program**

CanWest Petroleum announced today further details of its Firebag East
Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada. The Firebag East Property is the
largest land holding in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region, spanning
1,400,000 acres in 60 townships (2,187 square miles). The Athabasca Oil
Sands Region contains the largest

hydrocarbon resource in the world estimated at 1.5 trillion barrels of
oil with 310 billion barrels of recoverable oil using today\'s
technology. The Company announced it expects to begin its exploration
program on the Firebag East Property in late February 2005, which will
include drilling 20 wells.

Reuters, 0800 February 3, 2005

**Shell\'s Nigeria Bonga Oil Field May Start in July\
**Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Nigeria\'s largest foreign oil producer, said
output at the Bonga deep offshore oil field will begin in July, about a
year and a half behind schedule. The field will be capable of producing
about 220,000 barrels a day, according to Shell. Bloomberg News, 1201
February 3, 2005\
\
\
**Natural Gas**

**Last Two Ivan-hit US Gulf Deepwater Platforms to Return by April\
**The two remaining deepwater Gulf of Mexico facilities that remain
shut-in as a result from last fall\'s Hurricane Ivan are slated to be
back online by April 2005, the US Minerals Management Service said
Wednesday. Chevron\'s Petronius deep-water facility in Viosca Knoll 786,
which suffered topside module damage in the storm, is expected to return
in the first quarter, MMS said. Petronius had been producing 42,231 b/d
of oil and 64,500 Mcf/d of gas prior to Ivan. Total E&P\'s Virgo
platform in Viosca Knoll 823, which suffered topside equipment damage,
is slated to be back in service in April, MMS added. Virgo had pre-storm
production of 560 b/d of oil and 22,000 Mcf/d of gas.\
[http://www.platts.com/Natural%20Gas/News/6014734.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Natural Gas/News/6014734.xml?S=n)

**New Drilling in GOM Federal Waters**\
CAPCO Energy, Inc. announces that drilling has commenced at OCS Block
297 to a proposed total depth of approximately 13,500 feet. The well
shall test the Cib Op, Rob L and Rob M formations. It is expected that
the drilling and testing shall be completed within 45 days. The prospect
was selected based on 3-D seismic interpretation. If successful the
prospect is expected to produce between 10 to 30 million cubic feet of
gas per day and could contain recoverable reserves exceeding 65 Billion
cubic feet. <http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/050203/71978.html>

**Delaware Agency Denies BP Permit for LNG Terminal Pier**

Delaware\'s environmental agency on Thursday denied BP\'s application to
build an off-loading pier for a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG)
terminal. John A. Hughes, who heads the state Department of Natural
Resources and Environmental Control, determined the proposed pier on the
Delaware River is prohibited by state law. The planned 1.2 billion cubic
feet-per-day terminal actually is planned across the state line at Logan
Township, N.J. But Hughes ruled the pier fell within Delaware\'s Coastal
Zone Act, which bars \"heavy industry\" in the vicinity.

Reuters, 1443 February 3, 2005

**Other News**

Nothing to report.

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (02       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /03/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 46.40     | 48.80     | 34.20      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.32      | 6.50      | 5.69       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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