![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.75in" height="3.6055555555555556in"}U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

###### June 22, 2004

**Electricity**

####### 

**Monticello 1 Nuclear Power Plant Operating at 61%, Company Says**

Xcel Energy's 600 Megawatt Monticello nuclear unit increased power early
this morning after shutting down last week for maintenance on a pump.
Bloomberg News, 1017 June 22, 2004

**Glass-smashing Storm in TX Panhandle\
**Tennis-size hail and gale-force winds pounded Amarillo on Monday
night, snapping power lines, and shattering windows and skylights across
the city. The service recorded 0.77 inches of rain and winds as high as
68 mph at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. The largest hail
reported was softball-size. Bill Crenshaw, spokesman for Xcel Energy,
said the company had no numbers on reported power outages late Monday,
but workers were out fixing downed power lines. \"We will stay in the
field into the night and morning to respond to the storm damage,\"
Crenshaw said. He said the storm was a perfect recipe for downed power
lines: broken tree limbs, lightning strikes and debris blown into lines.
<http://www.amarillo.com/stories/062204/new_glasssmashing.shtml>

**Cradle of August Blackout Has Done Little to Upgrade Transmission**

The region of the US where the August 2003 blackout began will enter the
summer with essentially the same transmission system\--and
problems\--that it had last year, according to a new grid assessment by
the East Central Area Reliability Council (ECAR). Among other findings,
this year\'s report found that the ability of the transmission system to
support imports from adjacent regions is likely to be more limited this
summer than last for power entering the region from the south and west.
ECAR includes all or parts of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky,
Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
[http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/News/2483102.xml?S=n](http://www.platts.com/Electric Power/News/2483102.xml?S=n)

####### Petroleum

####### 

####### ConocoPhillips Lake Charles, Louisiana Cat Cracker Out ConocoPhillips has shut a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit at its 250,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Lakes Charles, Louisiana, a company source said Tuesday. The cat cracker had been having problems for about a week and failed Tuesday while being prepared to restart, said the source, who declined to be identified. Other units, including an alkylation unit and a reformer unit, were running at reduced rates. The plant has a fluid catalytic cracking capacity of about 50,000 bpd, and a catalytic reforming capacity of about 50,000 bpd. Reuters, 1314 June 22, 2004

**Oil Rises After Refinery Glitch**\
Oil prices rose on Tuesday after the shutdown of a gasoline-making unit
at a key Louisiana refinery threatened to tighten supplies in the early
days of the U.S. summer driving season. The fuel production glitch added
to concerns over stalled Iraqi oil exports after sabotage attacks last
week and a Norwegian oil workers\' strike. U.S. benchmark crude ended at
\$38.11 a barrel, up 48 cents, or 1.2 percent, and London Brent was up
48 cents at \$35.60. Both U.S. and London crude fell more than \$1 on
Monday. Gulf Gasoline prices surged as well.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040622/markets_oil_5.html> OPIS Price Watch
Alert, 1450 June 22, 2004

**US energy chief calls for NPC refinery capacity study by Sep 30**

US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham Tuesday formally requested the
National Petroleum Council conduct separate studies of American refining
capacity and issues related to the nation\'s petroleum inventory levels.
He asked for the studies to be completed by Sep 30. Abraham told NPC\'s
113th meeting. Abraham said the refining study should identify US future
demand for refined products, domestic capacity to meet future needs, the
barriers to meeting future demand and the capital factors that will
drive supply growth. The US has not seen a refinery built since 1976,
Abraham said, and \"more recently, even refinery expansion has been
slow.\" <http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/8738920.xml?S=n>

**Consumer Group Questions Shell Refinery Plans in California**

Shell's planned closure of the Bakersfield refinery has come under close
scrutiny from federal regulators. Shell has said its planned closure of
the refinery in October is due to a lack of adequate supplies of heavy
crude oil. Critics say Shell is planning the closing simply to increase
refinery margins (that is profit).

Oil Daily, June 22, 2004

#### Houston Refineries to Meet Security Rule

Refineries in Houston and Texas City, Texas, which account for 10
percent of North American refining capacity, will meet a July 1 deadline
to comply with new security rules, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday.
Refineries along with chemical plants in the Houston-Galveston area will
meet the deadline a week ahead of schedule, said Coast Guard Capt.
Richard Kaser, captain of the port of Houston-Galveston. Any plant not
in compliance could be closed if it could not show it had security
personnel, procedures and equipment in place to protect the facility in
compliance with the U.S. Maritime Transportation Security Act, which
imposes the July 1 deadline. Kaser said 92 percent of U.S.-flagged ships
have completed security checks by the Coast Guard. The remainder are in
earlier stages of the review process. Of the foreign-flag ships that
enter the Houston-Galveston port area, 55 percent meet the U.S. and
international rules. The remaining 45 percent are working on compliance
but may be subject to search at their first U.S. port of call until they
can show they meet security standards. \"We were hoping to meet a goal
of 50 percent for our foreign-flag ships; that\'s about 20 ships maximum
per day,\" Kaser said. \"We would be able to handle it.\" The port of
Houston is the busiest U.S. petrochemical port with more than 6,400
vessels passing through it each year.

Reuters, 1447 June 22, 2004

#### Iraq South Pipeline Repair Delayed

Repairs on a sabotaged oil pipeline in southern Iraq have fallen behind
schedule and will not start until at least Wednesday, preventing
resumption of full exports, an oil official familiar with the work said.
The official, who declined to be named, told Reuters the Iraqi crews
underestimated the amount of oil flooding the site in the Shuaibia area
near the city of Basra and are taking longer than expected to drain it.
Iraq\'s efforts to ramp up oil exports following a six-day stoppage have
faltered after it halted crude loadings from a small Gulf terminal and
marginally slowed supplies at its main outlet, shipping agents said on
Tuesday. Officials had hoped to return southern exports from the Basra
and Khor al-Amaya terminals to normal levels of around 1.8 million bpd
within a few days after resuming exports on Monday following repairs to
sabotaged pipelines. But loadings at Khor al-Amaya, which normally
handles less than 200,000 bpd, were brought to a halt again almost
immediately on Monday.

Reuters, 1322 and 1440 June 22, 2004

#### 

#### Natural Gas 

Nothing to report.

####### 

####### Other

# Security Forces Turnback \'Mock Attack\' at Nuclear Plant 

Security forces at Three Mile Island power plant last month stifled an
armed assault team\'s attempt to penetrate the nuclear facility. Though
TMI received fire, security forces succeeded in subduing several
intruders using laser weapons. Like last month\'s exercise at TMI,
Wackenhut\'s teams will use \"MILES\" gear - Multiple Integrated Laser
Engagement System - that collects data and tallies laser \"hits\" during
the exercises. Developed by Lockheed Martin Corp., the system is used
extensively by the U.S. Army\'s urban warfare training unit. The NRC
last year expanded the mock threats that security forces must defend
while increasing training and qualification requirements to meet
force-on-force exercises, said Stephen Floyd, NEI vice president of
regulatory affairs. Recent changes at the plants include extending
security perimeters, increasing patrols within plant security zones,
installing additional physical barriers and conducting vehicle checks at
greater standoff distances.

Intelligencer Journal, June 22, 2004
![](media/image2.png){width="4.1666666666666664e-2in"
height="4.1666666666666664e-2in"}<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=4940599>

**Secretary Ridge Announces New Nationwide Port Security Improvements**

New security measures are being implemented across the United States
providing for safer ports in America, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced Monday, June 21. With the
implementation of these international standards, in advance of the July
1st deadline, the U.S. is better able to harden the port's physical
infrastructure, verify the security of individual vessels before they
approach a U.S. port, and better restrict access to the port area.
Speaking from the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, the nation's busiest
container ports, Secretary Ridge underscored the importance of
implementing these new security measures around the world. "Over 80
percent of world trade travels by sea," said Ridge. "By taking a
layered, cooperative and balanced approach to strengthening the
international maritime system, we are not only further securing our
country, we are also protecting U.S. economic interests and the global
economy." For the text of the speech:
[*http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3728*](http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3728)\
[*http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3729*](http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3729)

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (6        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /22/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 38.11     | 37.18     | 30.63      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.29      | 6.35      | 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