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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 15, 2004**

**Electricity**

**Southern California Edison Cuts Output at Big Creek**

Southern California Edison (SCE) decreased the power output of its
1,020-megawatt Big Creek hydropower project in California by 550 MW late
Tuesday according to the California Independent System Operator. The Big
Creek station is located in Shaver Lake in Fresno County about 240 miles
southeast of San Francisco.

Reuters 07:53, December 15, 2004

# Entergy La. River Bend nuke back at full power

New Orleans-based energy company Entergy Corp.\'s 936-megawatt River
Bend nuclear unit in Louisiana returned to full power by early Wednesday
up from 75 percent of capacity on Tuesday. The River Bend station is
located in St. Francisville, Louisiana, about 24 miles north-northwest
of Baton Rouge.

Reuters 07:15, December 15, 2004

# Salem 2 Nuke Up To 65 Percent Power

New Jersey-based energy company Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.\'s
1,150-megawatt unit 2 at its Salem nuclear generating station in New
Jersey ramped up to 65 percent of capacity by early Wednesday, on
Tuesday, the unit was operating at 18 percent of capacity after exiting
an outage caused by an oil spill in the Delaware River on about Dec. 4
that caused PSEG to shut both Salem units 1 and 2. The 1,150 MW Salem 1
remained shut on Wednesday. The Salem station is located in Salem, New
Jersey, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia.

Reuters 07:09, December 15, 2004

# FPL\'s Turkey Point 3 Reactor Near Miami Closes During Fire

FPL Group Inc. shut its 760-megawatt Turkey Point 3 reactor near Miami
yesterday because of a fire within the turbine housing that was
extinguished within 10 minutes by on-site workers. According to the
company, the fire began at 11:40 a.m. the unit was closed five minutes
later, and the fire, caused by an oil leak in one of the turbine
bearings was extinguished minutes later at 11:49. A company
representative said that the unit would return to service sometime early
next week after the leak is repaired. Turkey Point is located about 24
miles south of Miami

Bloomberg, 08:29, December 15, 2004

# South Texas Unit 1 Nuclear-Power Production At 48%

Output from the 1,250 MW Unit 1 at the South Texas Project nuclear
generating station southwest of Houston increased to 45 percent of
capacity by early Wednesday output was reduced Monday night to 23
percent because of a steam leak that has been repaired.

Bloomberg, December 15, 2004

**Update -- 10,000 Puget Sound Customers also Lost Power in WA Sunday**

High winds along the Cascade foothills toppled trees and knocked out
power yesterday, leaving thousands of residents in the dark and sending
utility crews scrambling to restore electricity. East winds gusting to
75 miles an hour plagued communities such as Enumclaw and North Bend in
King County and Packwood in Lewis County and areas along state Route
167, the National Weather Service reported. According to KOMO-TV, Puget
Sound Energy reported that late Sunday 10,000 customers had lost power.
Comcast said about 9,000 people lost cable TV service as well, KOMO
reported. Other Puget Sound-area utilities reported no similar damage.
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5EZkqpnsyqRTifw11rbfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp^ZkqpnsyqRTifw11rbfej%5B!)

**Petroleum**

**Oil Tops \$44, Heating Oil Supplies Worry**

Oil prices surged more than two dollars on Wednesday as the U.S.
government reported a fall in heating oil stocks and cold weather
gripped the U.S. Northeast, the world\'s biggest heating fuel market.
Principal factors impacting the price include:

-   U.S. government reported that stocks of heating oil had fallen to
    49.9 million barrels, a deficit of nearly 13 percent from last year.

-   German consumer stocks of heating oil slipped last month to 59
    percent of capacity on December 1, the lowest ever level at this
    time of year.

-   Private forecaster AccuWeather has predicted it will be colder than
    normal in the eastern U.S. for the rest of December, raising demand
    for heating fuel.

-   Strong demand for diesel fuel has further strained supplies
    available for heating. Distillate fuel demand over the last four
    weeks has averaged nearly 7 percent above the same period last year.

-   Last week\'s decision by OPEC to take one million barrels per day
    off the market.

-   Supply problems in big Atlantic basin producers Norway and Nigeria
    shutting in a combined 225,000 bpd of oil output.

-   Doubts over supply from Russia\'s top oil exporter YUKOS

Reuters 13:15, December 15, 2004 and

<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BH4NPK1XT2FRECRBAE0CFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=7105704>

# Iraqi Oil Exports Resume Through Turkey

Oil exports have resumed through the export pipeline via northern Iraq
to the Turkish port of Ceyhan after a closure at the weekend because of
a sabotage attack, a shipping source said on Wednesday. The source said
pumping had resumed on Tuesday at 1 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) at a rate
of about 18,900 barrels per hour.

Reuters, December 15, 2004 and

# British North Sea Output Lowest Since 1991

British North Sea oil output fell in September to the lowest monthly
average since May 1991 as heavy maintenance sapped production, the Royal
Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday. Oil output fell by 22.1 percent on
the year and 5.5 percent on month to 1,532,502 barrels per day in
September, according to the RBS oil and gas index. The output was the
lowest since the level of 1,464,007 hit in May 1991, according to RBS

Reuters, December 15, 2004 and

# Colonial Pipeline Will Ration Space on U.S. Lines 

Colonial Pipeline Co. will ration space on two lines carrying gasoline,
heating oil and diesel from Mississippi to North Carolina because of
high demand. Shipment orders are \`\`heavy\'\' and \`\`exceed our
ability to deliver on schedule,\'\' said Steve Baker, a spokesman for
Colonial. Colonial rationed space on the lines most of the past two
months as refiners near the Gulf of Mexico boosted production. Customers
will receive a portion of their orders for a 10-day period starting next
week, based on their shipping history for the past year, Baker said.

Bloomberg 13:50, December 15, 2004

**Update \-- Petro-Canada To Resume Production At Terra Nova\
**Petro-Canada initiated the start up process on the Terra Nova Floating
Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform today after a
shutdown which commenced on November 21, 2004 following a discharge of
oily water from the platform. Approval to resume production from the
C-NOPB has been received and Petro-Canada intends to restore production
to pre-shutdown levels of 160,000 barrels per day over the next few
days.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/041215/petro_cda_update_1.html>

**Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Begins Service on New Northern
California Pipeline**\
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. announced on Wednesday that its new
70-mile replacement common- carrier pipeline between Concord and
Sacramento, Calif., has begun service and will transport gasoline, jet
fuel and diesel between the two cities. The approximately \$95 million
expansion project included replacing a 14-inch diameter refined
petroleum products pipeline with a new 20-inch pipeline and rerouting
portions of the pipeline away from environmentally sensitive areas and
residential neighborhoods.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041215/daw028_1.html>

# Natural Gas

# FERC Approves Cheniere Energy's LNG Venture

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved Cheniere
Energy\'s \$750 million plan to build a LNG import terminal and pipeline
project near Sabine Pass, Louisiana. The receiving terminals will
initially process up to 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day and
have a storage capacity of 10.1 billion cubic feet. The company plans to
break ground on the project during the first quarter of 2005 and
complete it by mid-2008.

Reuters, 13:29, December 15, 2004

**Other News**

**Nothing to Report**

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /15/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 44.21     | 41.96     | 33.36      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 7.04      | 5.98      | 6.56       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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