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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**October 12, 2004**

**Electricity**

# Palisades Nuke Plant in MI to Extend Outage

Consumers Energy said it plans to extend the refueling outage at the 789
MW Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan by at least 5 to 6 weeks to allow
for further inspections and possible repairs to two reactor vessel head
penetrations. The plant shut down Sept. 19 for a scheduled refueling and
now is expected to return to service in early December.

Reuters, 1449 October 12, 2004

Bloomberg News, 1532 October 12, 2004

# Wolf Creek Nuke in KS as Power Slip to 81 Percent

In Kansas, the 1,235 MW Wolf Creek nuclear power unit in Kansas slipped
to 81 percent power as of early Tuesday, down from full power a day
earlier. A plant spokeswoman said the reduction in output was to

facilitate work on a switch in the startup transformer. It is expected
to be back at full power around midweek.

Reuters, 1449 October 12, 2004

# Elk Hills Gas-fired Unit Curtails Power 

Sempra's Elk Hills gas-fired plant curtailed 324 MW of it 549 MW
capacity on Tuesday.

Reuters, 1401 October 12, 2004

# OPG's 535 MW Lennox 2 Oil-fired Unit in ON Restarted on Tuesday

Reuters, 1516 October 12, 2004

# NB Power's 635 MW Pt. Lepreau Nuclear Unit in NB restarted on Tuesday Reuters, 1516 October 12, 2004

######## Constellation to Run Calif. High Desert Plant Tuesday Constellation Energy Group Inc. prepared to operate its 830-megawatt High Desert natural gas-fired plant in California, a spokesman for the plant said Tuesday. Early Tuesday, the company curtailed the unit by 769 MW, compared with just 42 MW late Monday following repairs on a failed torque converter. [**http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh20789_2004-10-05_15-56-50_n05298198_newsml**](http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh20789_2004-10-05_15-56-50_n05298198_newsml)

**Real-time Prices Spike in Both North and South California Monday**

Real-time prices posted on the California Independent System Operator
Open

Access Same Time Information System for both the southern SP15 and
northern

NP15 zones spiked Monday, the sixth day since October 1 that posted
prices

spiked. On Oct 1, the Pacific-DC Intertie transmission line was taken
out of action for maintenance, which runs through the end of the year,
and the ISO implemented a new dispatch system. The 2,990-MW line runs
from the Northwest directly to Southern California.
[http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/News/4524554.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Electric Power/News/4524554.xml?S=n)

**Tax Credits for Wind Energy Projects Back** President Bush signed a
tax bill Monday that renews lucrative federal production tax credits for
wind energy projects. To qualify for the tax credits, developers must
have their wind turbines up and spinning by Dec. 31, 2005. The American
Wind Energy Association, the industry\'s top trade group, estimates
about \$3 billion of wind energy projects have been waiting for renewal
of the tax credits, which expired at the end of 2003.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5EZkkenvqqXTfc%23%3A%40%24bfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp^ZkkenvqqXTfc%23%3A@$bfej%5B!)

**Reliant Energy to Turn Pennsylvania Coal Waste into Power** Reliant
Energy plans to use coal waste piles to generate enough electricity to
light about half a million homes. The big advantage of coal waste is
cost. It\'s free. Reliant only has to truck in the fuel. When fully
operational, the plant will use 3.5 million tons of coal waste a year.
The heap in Bakerton, about 70 percent of which will go to Reliant\'s
Seward plant, should be cleaned up within four years, the Ebensburg pile
within 16 years.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5EZkkekswuVTfc%23%3A%40%24bfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp^ZkkekswuVTfc%23%3A@$bfej%5B!)

**Petroleum**

**Hurricane Ivan Evacuation and Oil Production Shut-in Statistics** The
shut-in oil production is equivalent to 27.73% of daily production of
oil in the GOM, which is approximately 1.7 million BOPD. The cumulative
(9/11/04-10/12/04) shut-in oil production is 18,921,852 bbls which is
equivalent to 3.127% of the yearly production of oil in the GOM, which
is approximately 605 million barrels.
<http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2004/press1012.htm>

**Louisiana Oil Port to Operate at Reduced Rates**

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. oil import terminal,
will probably operate at reduced rates for the rest of this week while
repairs are made at a pumping station, a port official said. Bloomberg
News, 1333 October 12, 2004

**US Energy Dept says continues to review SPR loan requests**

The US Department of Energy will continue to review requests as they
come in from refiners looking for loans from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve to make up for Gulf of Mexico supplies lost due to last month\'s
Hurricane Ivan, a DOE spokeswoman said Tuesday.
<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/9783273.xml?S=n>

# US DOE Loans Premcor 700,000 More Barrels of Oil

The U.S. Energy Department said on Tuesday it will loan Premcor Inc. an
additional 700,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
to help make up for oil supplies disrupted by Hurricane Ivan. The light,
sweet crude oil will be delivered in November to the company\'s refinery
in Memphis, Tennessee, which can process 190,000 barrels of crude a day.
This is the second loan to Premcor, after the refiner entered a deal to
borrow 500,000 barrels of crude from the government last week.

Reuters, 1318 October 12, 2004

**Oil Prices Top \$54 a Barrel Then Retreat**\
Oil prices fell sharply Tuesday after briefly surpassing \$54 a barrel
amid nagging concerns in the market that the global supply buffer is too
thin to handle a significant output disruption. Light sweet crude for
November delivery sank \$1.13 to \$52.51 per barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as \$54.45 earlier in the day.
Nymex oil futures settled Monday at a record \$53.64 per barrel.

<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041012/oil_prices_19.html>
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/041012/markets_oil_11.html>

**Nigeria\'s Labor Union Warns Strike May be Prolonged Beyond Oct 14**

Nigeria\'s powerful trade union group warned Oct 12 that a four-day
warning strike over rising fuel prices might be prolonged because of the
killing of a young demonstrator by police.
<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/5053510.xml?S=n>

[**Production Staff May Join Strike in
Norway**](http://www.energyintel.com/DocumentDetail.asp?document_id=132794)\
Norway\'s OFS oil union is considering extending its current strike on
drilling rigs to involve OFS members working on the country\'s oil
platforms, union president Terje Nustad warned Monday. International Oil
Daily, October 12, 2004

# Shell Says Nigeria Fire to Cut Output by 20,000 bpd

A fire a major Royal Dutch/Shell oil pipeline in Nigeria would cut crude
output by about 20,000 barrels per day for a \"few days\", but there
would be no force majeure on exports, company spokesmen said on Tuesday.
\"There will be a cut back in production of 20,000 barrels per day for a
few days while we repair the pipeline,\" said a spokesman, adding that
the exact outage time was not yet known. Reuters, 0836 October 12, 2004

**Natural Gas**

**Hurricane Ivan Evacuation and Gas Production Shut-in Statistics** The
shut-in gas production is equivalent to 13.87% of the daily production
of gas in the GOM, which is approximately 12.3 BCFPD. The cumulative
(9/11/04-10/12/04) shut-in gas production is 80.914 BCF which is
equivalent to 1.818% of the yearly production of gas in the GOM which is
approximately 4.45 TCF.**\
**http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2004/press1012.htm

**Henry Hub, Other Cash Markets Tumble on NYMEX, Low Demand**

After rebounding as much as \$1 coming off the weekend, spot markets
went the

other way during mid-morning trading on Tuesday, with some points losing
as

much as half of what they gained Monday. The Henry Hub sank nearly 30
cts to

average in the mid-\$5.30s/MMBtu.
[http://www.platts.com/Natural%20Gas/News/4786142.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Natural Gas/News/4786142.xml?S=n)

**Other News**

Nothing to report.

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (10       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /12/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 52.51     | 51.08     | 32.01      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.79      | 6.07      | 4.92       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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