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

**Office of Electricity and\
Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**April 15, 2005**

**Electricity**

**Delmarva Power in Stage Two of Plan to Build New 200 kV Transmission
Line\
**The line stretches from the Delaware City Millsboro. The line is
designed to transport electricity to approximately 300,000 customers.
The project is estimated to cost between \$55 and \$60 million.
[*http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5598188*](http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5598188)

**Duke's 1,100 MW McGuire 2 Nuke in North Carolina Shut During Ramp Up**

Duke shut the McGuire 2 nuke on April 14 due to a failed main steam
valve during a test after exiting a refueling outage.

Reuters, 1416 April 15, 2005

######## Petroleum

**BP Texas City to Restart FCC No. 1**\
BP plans to start the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit
No.1 on Friday at its refinery in Texas City, Texas.\
Reuters, 1331 April 15, 2005

**Huge Tax Claim Presented to Russia's Third Largest Oil Company**

Just before the President and CEO of TNK-BP, Robert Dudley, delivered
a speech at the Russian Economic Forum in London on Tuesday, the company
received an audit notice that in Dudley's words was "a sensationally
large tax claim." TNK-BP is Russia' third largest oil company which was
formed in 2003 as a joint venture between Russian investors (who own 50%
of the company) and BP (who owns the other 50%). Dudley in his talk
cautioned not to compare this claim to the claims that bankrupt Yukos
(which used to be Russia's largest oil company). In his speech
(certainly prepared prior to the claim,) Dudley noted that there are
problems, which inhibit foreign investment in Russia. The Yukos affair
may have been different, but another huge Russian claim against a large
oil company raises concerns and puts a huge damper on further foreign
investment into Russia's important oil sector.

Source: April 12, 2005 speech by CEO of TNK-BP on TNK-BP's website\
<http://www.tnk-bp.com/press/news/2005/4/134/>

**BP Chief John Browne to Meet with Putin About Huge Tax Claim**\
The CEO of all of BP will visit Moscow next week for talks with Russian
President Vladimir Putin to clarify the rules for investors in Russia\'s
oil sector, the Financial Times newspaper reported on its Web site on
Friday. John Browne will be asking President Putin about the latest tax
bill BP-TNK just received which increased its taxes by the equivalent of
\$1 billion.\
Reuters, 1934 April 14, 2005

**Venezuela Raising Cost of Doing Business for Foreign Oil Companies\
**Oil companies are being told that they will need to join joint
ventures with Venezuela owning at least 51% of each company and that
royalties paid to the government will rise again. Taxes, which were at
about 1% last year, were raised recently to over 16%. This new change
will raise royalty payments to 30%.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15oil.html>

**Update \-- Norwegian Authorities Order Rig Shutdown**\
Friday Norwegian authorities ordered the offshore oil rig Eirik Raude to
remain shut down until the cause of its latest oil spill could be
determined.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050415/norway_oil_rig_shutdown.html?.v=2>

**Natural Gas**

**Rhode Island Sues Keyspan Energy Over Providence LNG Terminal**\
<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/gas/news_article.cfm?id=5599161>

**FERC Approves New Underground Storage Site in Mississippi**\
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a permit for an
underground natural gas storage site near Caledonia, Mississippi.
<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/gas/news_article.cfm?id=5599161>

**Other News**

**San Onofre Nuke Plant in CA Has Disaster Exercise**\
Emergency personnel responded to a variety of incidents including a
control room outage, a helicopter crash, a landslide and a car crash.
Last week the plant ran another exercise simulating armed attackers
trying to create a radiological release.

<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20050414-9999-1mc14onofre.html>

######## Energy Prices 

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (04       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /15/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 50.61     | 53.46     | 37.74      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.95      | 7.26      | 5.68       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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

**ENSEC threat awareness blog site** from Energy Assurance

[*http://ensec.blogspot.com*](http://ensec.blogspot.com/)