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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

###### March 10, 2004

**Electricity**

**Planned DC-Wires Project Would Link San Francisco, Power-Rich East
Bay**

Power-challenged San Francisco may soon be tapping into electricity
resources across the bay in Pittsburg. A new project being floated by
financiers Babcock & Brown would connect the two cities via a new
direct-current trans-bay transmission line. The capacity of the project
would be 350 MW, with potential to expand to 700 MW if needed. The
developer first presented its plan to the public on February 19 at a
meeting of the San Francisco Stakeholder Study Group, a grid-planning
effort launched by the California Independent System Operator following
a major blackout in 1998. The group includes representatives from
Cal-ISO, Pacific Gas & Electric, the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission, Mirant and community groups. The company has already secured
\"quite a bit\" of financing for the \$200 million project, according to
David Parquet, a marketer in Babcock & Brown\'s San Francisco office.

California Energy Markets, March 8, 2004

**SCANA Close To Finishing 875-MW Power Plant in South Carolina**

SCANA Corp., South Carolina's biggest electric company, said Wednesday
it mostly finished construction of its \$450 million Jasper power plant
in South Carolina and expected the unit to enter service in May before
the start of the peak summer demand season. "We mostly completed the
construction of Jasper and are now testing the plant," Robin Montgomery,
a spokesman for SCANA, told Reuters. The 875-megawatt plant is in Jasper
County near Savannah, Georgia. The unit will burn natural gas as the
primary fuel with oil as a backup.

Reuters, March 10, 2004, 9:54 am ET

<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040310/utilities_scana_jasper_1.html>

**FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse Power Output Seen Delayed**

FirstEnergy Corp. worked on Wednesday to restart its troubled
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio but a timetable to put
electricity on the power grid was pushed back to the weekend, a plant
spokesman said. Davis-Besse, closed two years ago to replace a badly
damaged reactor vessel lid, was expected to begin sending power to the
grid on Thursday or Friday and reach full power production of 925
megawatts within two weeks. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday
gave Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy the green light to restart the plant
on the shore of Lake Michigan near Oak Harbor, Ohio. Plant operators
were working Tuesday to trigger a nuclear fission in the reactor
required to make electricity, but they had to stop in order to dilute a
boron solution in the reactor, said spokesman Todd Schneider.

Reuters, March 10, 2:25 pm ET

<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040310/utilities_firstenergy_davisbesse_1.html>

**APS' Ariz. Palo Verde 2 Nuke Exits Outage, Up To 44 Pct**

Arizona Public Service\'s 1,270 megawatt Palo Verde 2 nuclear unit in
Arizona exited an outage and ramped up to 44 percent of capacity by
early Wednesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power
reactor status report. On Tuesday, the unit was operating at about 10
percent of capacity. The Palo Verde station is located in Wintersburg,
Arizona, about 50 miles west of Phoenix.

Reuters, March 10, 2004, 07:03:39

**Petroleum**

**New England Sees Tight Gasoline Ahead of Ocean Storm Delays\
**Gasoline supplies at deepwater terminals in New England have tightened
even as spot markets have descended in recent days, and there are
concerns about some outages or tougher loading restrictions headed into
the weekend. Two major ocean storms are expected to scrape the eastern
seaboard with high winds that could keep much of the N.Y. Harbor
generated barge traffic weather-bound, according to supply sources. The
shipping problems are impacting distillate markets as well, even though
bulk supplies appear comfortable in source markets. Motiva ran out
completely of gasoline at Providence at one point last week.

Oil Price Information Service, March 10, 2004

**Update \-- Garryville Coker Unit Fire Put Out**\
Gulf Coast trading sources tell OPIS that a fire at Marathon's 254,000
bpd Garyville, La. refinery, which started about noon local time on
Tuesday has been put out. The fire was in a 35,000 b/d coker unit and as
a result the refinery had to curtail refinery operations. Trading
sources are not sure of how much refinery operations have been cut back
as well as damage to the coker. There has been no comment from
Marathon.\
Oil Price Information Service, March 9, 2004

**Motiva-Delaware Terminal At Normal Rates After Outage**\
After an outage Monday, Motiva's Delaware City, Del., terminal is
operating at normal rates, said a spokesman. A March 8 notice to
shippers said that due to quality issues, unleaded and mid-grade were
not available and Motiva was correcting the problem.  The outage,
described as "brief" may have occurred during the retesting of some
reformulated grades of gasoline, said a spokesman. He was unsure why
the\
grades were being retested.

Oil Price Information Service, March 9, 2004

#### Natural Gas 

**Trinidad's Atlantic LNG Gas Exports Resume After Curtailments**

Trinidad and Tobago's largest natural gas joint venture, Atlantic LNG,
resumed exports Wednesday morning after tug boat operators agreed to
call off a strike Tuesday night, said a source at one of Atlantic LNG\'s
shareholder companies. "The negotiations were resolved last night and
LNG exports resumed as of (Wednesday)," said the source. He said
Atlantic LNG was forced to delay a few liquefied natural gas, or LNG,
cargoes for a few days, but the strike didn't cause significant
disruptions for the joint venture's clients. All three of Atlantic LNG's
natural gas trains were shut Monday and Tuesday due to the strike.
Atlantic LNG normally produces 1.7 billion cubic feet per day, or 65% of
Trinidad\'s total natural gas production. While exports were returning
to normal Wednesday, a strike at the construction site for the fourth
LNG train continued, said the source.

Dow Jones Business News, March 10, 9:24 am ET

The Oil Daily, March 10, 2004

<http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040310/0924000503_1.html>

**TransCanada, ConocoPhillips To Suspend Fairwinds Project**

TransCanada Corp. and ConocoPhillips said Wednesday they\'ll suspend
further work on a liquefied natural gas project in Maine amid local
opposition. The residents of Harpswell, where the Fairwinds facility is
located, voted against leasing the former U.S. Navy Fuel Depot site to
build an LNG regasification facility, the companies said in a release.
They also said they'll continue pursuing opportunities to deliver LNG to
the northeast U.S. -- a region they and other experts say needs new
natural gas sources.

Dow Jones Business News, March 10, 9:17 am ET

<http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040310/0917000494_1.html>

####### 

####### 

####### Other

**Saudi Cuts April Oil Supplies to Majors, Asian Buyers. U.S. Supplies
Steady**

OPEC's top producer Saudi Arabia on Wednesday told some leading crude
customers it was cutting supplies for April, implementing part of a
February OPEC agreement to reduce oil production, traders said.

But some Saudi customers were spared cuts and industry sources said
stubbornly high oil prices appeared to have persuaded Riyadh not to
fully implement its part of the OPEC deal that, on paper, would have
required Riyadh to lower output by as much as 800,000 barrels a day.
"There are no cuts for us," said a source at a U.S. refiner. The
industry sources estimated the reductions, shouldered mostly by
integrated major companies and Asian buyers, indicated a worldwide Saudi
cut of no more than 250,000 bpd.

Reuters, March 10, 7:51 am ET

<http://biz.yahoo.com/rm/040310/energy_asia_saudi_5.html>

**New England's Jan. Freeze Shows Need for Gas, Power Markets to Work
Together**

With both New England's natural gas and electric systems put to the test
during the deep freeze of January 2004, both industries are quickly
realizing that better communication is needed because their respective
commodities are becoming more entwined. The severe cold this winter
showed that the gas and power sectors need a common "communication
protocol," according to a panel on Tuesday at the winter committee
meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners
(NARUC) in Washington, DC. During the January freeze, New England's
supply and infrastructure for both gas and power were tested to near
their breaking point. Despite mid-January record high spot gas prices in
response to temperatures cold enough to freeze exposed skin in 15
minutes, New England gas distributors, pipelines, LNG operators and the
power grid held the delivery system together without a glitch. However,
the trying situation highlighted a number of energy issues in the
region, including the need for new market rules on unit availability,
the benefit of having firm rather than interruptible transportation, the
intricacies of scheduling and dispatch, the differences between the gas
day and the electric day, and the need for communication protocols.

NGI's Power Market Today, March 10, 2004

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (3        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /10/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 36.34     | 35.80     | 37.18      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.33      | 5.34      | 6.78       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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