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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

###### July 12, 2004

**Electricity**

**Beaver Valley 2 Nuclear-Power Plant at Full Power, Company Says**
FirstEnergy Corp.'s 873 Megawatt Beaver Valley nuclear unit 2 ramped up
to 100% power following maintenance on a condenser. The plant was
previously at 75% power. Bloomberg News, 1047 July 12, 2004

**Browns Ferry 2 Ramps up to 45% Power** Tennessee Valley Authority's
1.153 Megawatt Browns Ferry nuclear unit 2 ramped up to 45% power up
from 0% from the previous report. Last week a turbine load rejection
signal had shut down the plant. Bloomberg News, 1406 July 12, 2004

**Peach Bottom 2 Nuclear-Power Plant at Full Power, Company Says**
Excelon Nuclear's 1,110 Megawatt Peach Bottom nuclear unit 2 ramped up
to 100%, up from 77% from the previous report. The plant powered down
over the weekend for maintenance. Bloomberg News, 1124 July 12, 2004

**Three Power Plants Have Unplanned Outages in CA** Three additional
plants out in CA include the 240 MW Unit 1 and 235 MW Unit 2 at the La
Paloma gas-fired plant and the 206 MW Unit 3 at the Potrero gas-fired
plant. All the outages were unplanned. Dealers noted the DC Pacific
Intertie was due to reopen late Monday and was expected to operate with
a southbound capacity of 956 MW on Tuesday. It is expected to shut again
for further work on Friday. Reuters 1355, July 12, 2004

**Elk River, Minn.-based Electric Cooperative Takes on Construction of
New Plant** The Elk River-based electric cooperative said Friday it has
rejected 31 proposals for constructing a new 150-megawatt generating
plant. Instead, Great River Energy plans to handle the \$70 million to
\$80 million job itself because it can do the work less expensively than
the 17 organizations that submitted bids. The proposed plant \-- Great
River still needs the OK from environmental regulators and the Minnesota
Public Utilities Commission \-- would be capable of producing
approximately 150 megawatts. One megawatt powers roughly 1,000 homes. It
will be able to burn either fuel oil or natural gas, allowing Great
River to switch fuels based on availability and cost. The plant will be
a so-called peaking plant and thus will operate about 5 percent of the
time \-- say 500 hours a year \-- and only when demand spikes. Usually
that occurs on the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of
winter.
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=4977715>
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn., July 10, 2004

**Colorado PUC Staff Sees Problems With Xcel Power Plan** The staff of
the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Friday said it thinks Xcel
Energy Inc. (XEL) isn\'t doing enough to address power outages in the
state.
<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/power/news_article.cfm?id=4979624>

**Audit Shows Weaknesses With Utility\'s Montana Operations**
NorthWestern Energy\'s operations in Montana generally follow good
utility practices, but an independent audit released Thursday also
identified weaknesses such as the frequency of electric service
interruptions and the number of power outages. The audit by Liberty
Consulting Group of Quentin, Pa., said NorthWestern must improve its
tree trimming, compliance with inspection schedules, protection of its
system against animal-caused outages, and prevention of cable failures.
Billings Gazette, July 9, 2004
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=4976991>

**NRC Reviewing Uprate Requests for Five Units**

NRC is reviewing power uprate applications for five reactors, the agency
said in a status report released Friday. \"Power uprates currently under
review\" for Palisades, Vermont Yankee, Waterford-3, Indian Point-2, and
Seabrook could add 325 megawatts \"to the nation\'s electric generating
capacity if approved,\" NRC

said in the report. NRC said it expects to complete reviews of the power
uprate requests by January 2005, with the exception of Seabrook, which
has a completion date to be determined.
<http://www.platts.com/Nuclear/News/2620258.xml?S=n>

**Ameren to Replace Illinois Plant Capacity Lost in 2000 Fire**

Ameren Corp. will begin construction by September on two generating
units at its Venice power plant in

Illinois with a combined 340 megawatts of capacity that will replace
units destroyed in a 2000 fire. Bloomberg News, July 12, 2004

**Power Outage Hits Part of Chicago\'s O\'Hare Airport**

Electric power was disrupted at two of five terminals in Chicago\'s
O\'Hare International Airport on Monday after workers accidentally dug
into power equipment, authorities said. Power was affected at two of the
busy airport\'s five terminals, Terminal 2 and parts of Terminal 3, but
flight delays were minimal, authorities said. Spokesmen for major
airlines said their operations were largely unaffected, though American
Airlines said some ticket counters were having sporadic problems
printing tickets and displaying flight information. Some passengers were
being screened manually at security checkpoints at the affected
terminals because of the loss of power and a Northwest Airlines
spokeswoman said some flights might be delayed as a result. Any loss of
power had no affect on air traffic control at the airport, Federal
Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said. He said some
baggage areas might have been affected by the outage.

Reuters, 1542 July 12, 2004

**Petroleum**

**Update \-- Tesoro Says Refinery Resumes Normal Production**\
Tesoro Petroleum Corp. said on Monday its 161,000 barrel per day (bpd)
refinery in Martinez, California, returned to normal gasoline and diesel
output over the weekend after repairs to a boiler were completed. The
gasoline and diesel production at the refinery were reduced so repairs
could be made to the boiler after it broke down on July 4.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040712/energy_refinery_2.html>

**Update \-- BP Plans Hydrogen Unit Restart at Texas Refinery**\
BP plans to restart a hydrogen unit at its 470,000 barrel per day (bpd)
refinery in Texas City, Texas, on Thursday, according to a filing with
Texas environmental regulators. The restart of the unit, which provides
hydrogen to increase gasoline and other fuels production at the
refinery, is scheduled to take place in the early morning hours,
according to the notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality. <http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040711/energy_bp_texascity_1.html>

**Lightning Blamed for MAP MN Refinery Fire**\
Lightning struck a tank at the Marathon Ashland refinery here Sunday,
igniting a fire hot enough to melt the steel tank. As much as 630,000
gallons of slurry oil \-- a thick fuel used in industry \-- spilled or
burned, generating a cloud of oily soot that settled onto a nearby
residential area. There were no injuries, and the fire was out around
three hours after it started. The fire started about 5:50 a.m. when a
bolt of lightning hit a 48-foot heated tank holding about 2.5 million
gallons of slurry oil. A refinery employee witnessed the lightning
strike, which apparently ignited some vapors in the tank and caused an
explosion that blew the lid off. The flames got hot enough to weaken the
tank, causing it to rupture and spill about a fourth of its contents.
The flow was contained by an earthen and clay-lined dike around the
tank. There were no evacuations, and no spills of petroleum products
into sewers or waterways.
<http://www.kmsp.com/news/local/story.asp?content_id=1632486> Bloomberg
News, 0812 July 12, 2004

**Sunoco Reports Refinery Fire on Saturday** Sunoco confirmed that there
was a fire at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at its Eagle Point, N.J., refinery. The
blaze was put out at 9:20 p.m. and was isolated to a cumene unit. That
unit remains down, but the rest of the plant\
was unaffected. OPIS Price Watch Alert, 1014 July 12, 2004

**Crude Futures Back Near Six-week High**\
Crude futures edged closer to \$41 a barrel Monday, trading near a
six-week high, with threats to Russian production and a refinery fire in
Norway fueling concerns over the state of global oil supplies. It seems
like the business climate in Russia, which was the \'great hope\' for
the future oil supplies, is getting very dangerous and unpredictable,\"
said Phil Flynn, a senior analyst at Alaron Trading. Debt woes at
Russian oil giant Yukos continued to contribute to the uncertainty,
though some concerns over a production cut were eased Monday. Yukos
offered to voluntarily pay \$8 billion in current and potential taxes
from 2000 to 2003 if given three years to make the payments, according
to the Interfax news agency. Also, said Flynn, the murder last Friday of
Paul Klebnikov, an American editor of Forbes magazine\'s Russian
edition, added to nervousness over stability in the country, a key
non-OPEC oil producer. Meanwhile, Norway\'s Statoil said output at the
Mongstad refinery has been reduced to half the normal level, or 90,000
barrels per day, following a fire Monday morning, according to AFX News.
Repairs are expected to take \"some weeks,\" said Flynn, and during that
time, capacity will likely remain at about 50 percent.

[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&guid=%7BF11CC47B%2D963C%2D4109%2D9E07%2DFD1145114927%7D](http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&guid={F11CC47B-963C-4109-9E07-FD1145114927})

# 

#### OPEC May Raise Output Further If Prices Remain High

OPEC may increase output beyond the 500,000 barrels of

oil a day members agreed to add in August if prices remain high,

Kuwaiti Minister of Energy Ahmad Fahad al-Sabah said in Tokyo. Bloomberg
News, July 12, 2004

#### 

#### 

#### 

#### 

#### Update \-- Total Lifts Notice of Missed Nigerian Crude Oil Deliveries

#### Total SA, Europe\'s third-largest oil company, said it lifted a notice to customers that Nigerian oil deliveries may be missed following a six-day shutdown last week on output from Africa\'s biggest oil producer. \`\`The force majeure was lifted on Friday afternoon,\'\' Total spokeswoman Patricia Marie said in a telephone interview from Paris. Bloomberg News, 0349 July 12, 2004

# 

# Natural Gas

**Weaver\'s Cove CEO Calls Issues Over LNG Quality \"Phony\"**

Concerns over whether liquefied natural gas, which has a higher heating
value than traditional gas, can be shipped without harming pipelines and
homeowners\' appliances, is a non-issue, said Gordon Shearer, CEO of
Weaver\'s Cove Energy, which has proposed to build an LNG receiving
terminal in Fall River, Massachusetts. \"It\'s a phony issue,\" he told
a Washington conference Friday sponsored by the US Assn for Energy
Economics and the International Assn for Energy Economics. LNG \"can be
burned in people\'s homes without any side effects. Shearer said the
issue only surfaced because local distribution companies want something
in exchange for having to take in the higher-Btu gas. The problem is
that when they won\'t accept regasified LNG, it ends up being like \"a
Mexican standoff,\" he said.

[http://www.platts.com/Natural%20Gas/News/1161708.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Natural Gas/News/1161708.xml?S=n)

**Other**

**Maple Creek Shuts High Quality, Perhaps Permanently on July 8**

Maple Creek Mining said late on July 8 that it has shut down its High
Quality mine due to an order earlier that day from the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection that bans it from operating a
longwall under a stream. High Quality a key producer of low-sulfur
Pittsburgh seam coal out of Washington County has had trouble for months
with the DEP. It had to shut the longwall briefly this spring, and shut
some of its continuous miners for months, due to prior agency rulings.
The mine, which is relatively new and got its first longwall last year,
is targeted at 2-3 million tons/year of production.

<http://www.platts.com/Coal/News/5723439.xml?S=n>

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (7        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /12/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 39.39     | 38.37     | 31.33      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.95      | 5.88      | 5.22       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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