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

**Office of Electricity, Delivery and\
Energy Reliability**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**August 19, 2005**

######## Electricity

**New Power Plant Approved for Cheyenne**

The Public Service Commission gave final approval for the WyGen II
project of Black Hills Corp. The capacity of the plant, expected to go
on-line in 2008, will be 90 MW, 65 MW of which will be dedicated for the
city of Cheyenne.

<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/power/news_article.cfm?id=5889276>

### Leaking Seal Extends Palo Verde Unit 1 Shut Down 

Pinnacle West Capital Corp announced that a leaking oil seal was
discovered as unit 1 of its Palo Verde nuclear generating station was
restarting. The unit has been shut since August 12 to repair a diesel
generator. Now, restart will be delayed until repairs on the leaking
seal are completed sometime around the middle of next week.

Bloomberg 18:42, August 18, 2005.

**Faulty Transformer Explodes in San Francisco Financial District**

An explosion of an underground electrical transformer in San Francisco's
financial district led police to evacuate several buildings as they
investigated the nature of the explosion. Local utility PG&E indicated
that a 1,000 kVA transformer exploded and that the company is
investigating the cause of the blast. One person was injured and some
slight damage occurred to nearby buildings.

Reuters 14:57, August 19, 2005.

TXU's 554 MW Coal-fired Unit 4 at its Shadow Generating Facility in
Texas Shut August 19.

Reuters 14:48, August 19, 2005.

######## Petroleum

**EnCana Shuts Production in Ecuador**

Canadian producer EnCana shut in some 43,000 b/d of crude oil production
from its operations in Ecuador because of civil unrest in oil producing
regions. The unrest centers on a perceived lack of state participation
in oil operations and a lack of foreign investment in the oil producing
regions.

Reuters 18:04, August 19, 2005.

**NYMEX Crude Surges on Ecuador Force Majeure**

The price of crude oil on the NYMEX futures market closed up by \$2.23
at \$65.50 following news that civil unrest in Ecuador resulted in the
state oil company declaring force majeure. Petroecuador announced that
it does not expect exports to return to normal until mid November.
Further, the government moved troops into two provinces to bolster
security in the oil fields. In addition, the Economy Minister announced
that Ecuador would buy oil from Venezuela to meet its domestic needs.
Ecuador exports about 140,000 b/d, primarily to the U.S.

For details see the following:

Impact on prices \-- Reuters 14:32, August 19, 2005.

Troop movements -- Reuters 23:11, August 19, 2005.

Import fuel to meet domestic needs -- Reuters 11:50, August 19, 2005.

Declaration of force majeure -- Reuters 17:36, August 19, 2005.

**Update - Conoco-Phillips Says Wood River Operating at Normal Level**

According to Conoco-Phillips, its 306,000 b/d Wood River is operating at
normal levels. As reported in EAD earlier in the week, traders had
indicated that the refinery was operating normally however there had
been no comment from the company until the announcement on Friday. The
refinery suffered a power outage on August 10 and had been bringing
units back on line since the outage.

Reuters 12:46, August 19, 2005.

**Lightning Partially Shuts PDVSA's Amuay Refinery, No Impact on
Gasoline Deliveries**

A fire caused by lightning partially shut down the Amuay refinery of
Petroleos de Venezuela on August 18. According to the company, the
refinery should be operating at normal levels by the end of Friday. The
company also indicated that the interruption will have no impact on
gasoline supplies for either the domestic or export markets.

Bloomberg 11:38, August 19, 2005.

**Natural Gas**

### FERC OKs Northern Border Pipeline Expansion

FERC has approved a request from Northern Border Pipeline to increase
the capacity on its system from Harper, Iowa to North Hayden, Indiana,
by up to 130,000 Mcf/d.

[http://www.platts.com/Natural%20Gas/headlines.jsp](http://www.platts.com/Natural Gas/headlines.jsp)

######## Other News

### NRC to Complete Spent Fuel Assessments by End of Year

The analyses of site-specific spent fuel pools began in July and will
completed by year-end. The studies are being conducted to identify
additional mitigation strategies to enhance the spent fuel pool cooling
safety function under severe circumstances.

<http://www.platts.com/Nuclear/headlines.jsp>

**Helicopter Crashes in Gulf of Mexico Killing Two**

Two employees of Offshore Logistics were killed when their helicopter
crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. The copter was en route to an offshore
platform when the accident occurred.

Reuters, 13:48, August 19, 2005.

######## Energy Prices 

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (08       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /19/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 66.51     | 66.71     | 47.60      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 9.09      | 9.59      | 5.39       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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/)