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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**November 30, 2004**

**Electricity**

**SCE's 790 MW Mohave 1 Coal-fired Plant Has Unexpected Outage**

Dealers said a delay in the return of the 1,270 megawatt Unit 3 at the
Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona and an outage at the 790 MW Unit 1
at the Mohave coal-fired plant in Nevada further tightened electricity
supplies in the Southwest on November 30^th^.\
Reuters, 1435, November 30, 2004

**Wisconsin Court Sends Oak Creek Plans Back for Further Review**

Responding to complaints from several groups against the Wisconsin
Public Service Commission and Department of Natural Resources, a circuit
judge ruled Monday that the PSC did not follow proper procedures in
approving the 1,200-MW expansion of We Energies\' Oak Creek coal-fired
power plant. Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan vacated the PSC
order approving the project and sent the case back to the commission for
additional proceedings. The PSC gave final approval late last year to
two of the three proposed coal-fired units at Oak Creek, giving the
green light for construction of a total of 1,200 MW of coal-fired power
and affirming its initial approval of the primary portion of We
Energies\' Power The Future program. The DNR followed with approval of
an air permit in January this year.
[*http://www.platts.com/Coal/News/6972528.xml?S=n*](http://www.platts.com/Coal/News/6972528.xml?S=n)

**Petroleum**

**Update \-- Delaware River Opens to Traffic After Oil Spill**

Ships were moving slowly into and out of the Port of Philadelphia on
Tuesday after the Delaware River was partly shut by a crude oil spill
last Friday, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. \"Traffic is open on a
case-by-case basis,\" said Petty Officer Jamie Bigelowe. About 20 miles
of the Delaware River was shut to allow for the cleanup of about 30,000
gallons, of heavy Venezuelan crude oil that had spilled from two gashes
in the hull of the Athos I, a Cypriot-flagged tanker.

Reuters, 1236 November 30, 2004

OEA comment: one Reuters report said up to 450,000 gallons had been
spilled, another said about 1,000 barrels and another said 30,000
gallons. The 450,000 gallon figure may have been a mathematical error
converting barrels into gallons: 1,000 barrels of crude oil = 42,000
gallons, not 450,000 gallons. The U.S. Coast Guard website only mentions
30,000 gallons as the estimated spill size.

**Colonial Freezes Loadings on Main Gasoline Line**

Colonial Pipeline froze loadings on its main gasoline line from
Mississippi to North Carolina on Monday as demand for space outpaced
capacity, the company said. The freeze means no new shipping orders may
be put on the 1.3 million barrel-per-day (bpd) line during the 34th
cycle, but existing orders will be honored, the company said. It is not
unprecedented but it is abnormal for gasoline shipping to be limited
during this time of year, Gulf Coast dealers said.

Reuters, 1643 November 29, 2004

Oil Daily, November 30, 2004

**Statoil Contains Gas Leak at Platform**\
**Rig May Be Out of Operation for Several Weeks\
**A Statoil ASA production rig shut down after a gas leak may be out of
operation for several weeks, the company said Tuesday, cutting Norway\'s
estimated daily production by more than 6 percent. Statoil would not say
specifically when the Snorre A platform would be brought back on line,
noting that any decision would have to be made after the gas leak is
permanently contained. The closure means the loss of 130,000 barrels of
oil a day, along with 75,000 barrels a day from the nearby Vigdis field.
Those 205,000 barrels account for about 6.4 percent of Norway\'s
estimated 3.2 million barrels a day of production.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041130/statoil_rig_shutdown_1.html>

**Gas Leaks Shut 280,000 bpd North Sea Oil Supply\
**More than 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) of North Sea oil production
remained halted on Tuesday after two separate gas leaks shut fields in
the Norwegian and UK sectors. In Norway, Statoil\'s 130,000 barrels per
day (bpd) Snorre A oil platform in the North Sea and the 75,000 bpd
Vigdis satellite remained shut on Tuesday after a gas leak, and will
stay closed for some days. In the British sector, the Brae oil and gas
complex remained closed as work continued to repair a gas leak found at
the weekend, operator Marathon said. The closure reduced UK North Sea
oil production by about 76,000 barrels a day (bpd) of which 36,000 bpd
came from Brae and the rest from four other fields which use the Brae
infrastructure.\
Reuters, 0526 November 30, 2004

**EnCana, Premcor in Talks to Expand Ohio Refinery**

EnCana Corp., North America\'s biggest oil explorer, said on Monday it
is in talks with U.S. refiner Premcor Inc. aimed at jointly expanding a
refinery in Ohio to process burgeoning Canadian heavy oil and oil sands
production. EnCana and Premcor will conduct engineering studies to
determine if it makes sense to add equipment to the Lima, Ohio, plant
allowing it to process 200,000 barrels a day of heavy crude under a
long-term supply contract, EnCana said. Under a memorandum of
understanding, the two companies will examine 50-50 ownership of the
plant, which now runs at about 170,000 barrels a day.

Reuters, 1814 November 29, 2004

**Premcor Sees Ohio Refinery Online During Expansion**

Premcor Inc. expects its Lima, Ohio, refinery to continue running during
a potential 50-50 joint venture expansion with Canadian firm EnCana
Corp., Premcor officials said Tuesday

Reuters, 1526 November 30, 2004

**US Refiners to Avert Northeast Heat Oil Crunch-API**

Refineries ramping up production ahead of winter should be able to keep
the U.S. Northeast adequately supplied with heating oil, the head of the
American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday.

Reuters, 1452 November 30, 2004

**Natural Gas**

**Santa Clarita, Calif., to Hold Hearing on Gas Pipeline\
**At a public hearing Monday, residents had the first chance to learn
about a proposed natural gas pipeline that would run for more than seven
miles through Santa Clarita. Called the Cabrillo Port, the project
includes construction of a 21-mile underwater pipeline to transfer
natural gas from an offshore storage tank to a Southern California Gas
Co. pipeline facility near Oxnard. Another pipeline would run from
Oxnard to Santa Clarita and then on to a storage facility at Honor
Rancho near Castaic, according to Australian company BHP Billiton, which
has proposed building it.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5EZkoruvxsUUok%22EN%26bfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp^ZkoruvxsUUok"EN%26bfej%5B!)

**Williams to Replace Rupture-Prone Section of Northwest Pipeline**\
Troubleshooting a 268-mile stretch of pipeline that has been susceptible
to ruptures, a unit of Williams on Monday filed an application with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requesting authorization to
construct and operate an estimated \$333 million project to replace
natural gas capacity on its Northwest Pipeline in western Washington.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkpjisqpYUok%22EN%26bfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkpjisqpYUok"EN%26bfej%5B!)\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/041129/williams_pipeline_1.html>

**Duke Resumes Full Service at Two Moss Bluff Storage Facilities
Tuesday**\
Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) said it will resume operations
Tuesday at two of the three storage caverns that were taken out of
service following the explosion and fire at its rural Liberty County,
TX, facility more than three months ago.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkpjisqpYUok%22EN%26bfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkpjisqpYUok"EN%26bfej%5B!)

**Tennessee Gas Completes Repairs on Offshore Louisiana Pipeline**

Tennessee Gas Co. completed repairs near Ship Shoal 157 off Louisiana
coast.

Bloomberg News, 1119 November 30, 2004

**El Paso Pipeline Declares Unauthorized Overpull Penalty Alert**

El Paso Natural Gas Co. has instituted an unauthorized overpull penalty
alert

Bloomberg News, 1052 November 30, 2004

**Other**

Nothing to report.

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **\       | **\        |
|                               | (11       | Week      | Year Ago** |
|                               | /30/04)** | Ago**     |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 49.16     | 48.74     | 30.33      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.79      | 5.24      | 4.86       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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