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The Oil Patch Insider Calgary in legal tussle with British giant; Red Cavaney lined up for Meet Alaska conference
The City of Calgary is going to court in a bid to protect almost 1 million residents of southern Alberta from a British invasion.
A notice of motion has been filed in the Alberta Court of Appeal to block Direct Energy from acquiring the electricity and natural gas retailing divisions of Calgary-based Atco.
The C$128 million takeover, approved last month by Alberta’s Energy and Utilities Board, is projected to add C$40 a year to gas bills and C$45 a year to electric bills for Atco customers.
Direct Energy is a subsidiary of British gas and power marketing giant Centrica, which gained a foothold in North America’s deregulating energy market two years ago when it paid C$1 billion for Enbridge’s retail energy services division.
Direct Energy and its U.S. affiliate, Energy America, have been embroiled in jurisdictional tangles in Ontario, Georgia and Michigan where they have been fined for misleading sales tactics.
In Georgia, Energy America paid US$500,000 in sanctions for signing up natural gas customers without their permission, while Direct Energy was fined C$157,500 in Ontario after its agents were nabbed for forging 21 utility contracts.
The City of Calgary — which owns Enmax, the main rival to Direct Energy — said in its court filings that the sale creates “market imbalances” and that the Energy and Utilities Board failed to take into account the “marketing practices of Direct Energy affiliates.”
It wants the court to explore ways to “encourage competition,” by allowing other companies to compete for Direct Energy’s billing contract.
Hugh MacDonald, energy spokesman for Alberta’s Opposition Liberal party, praised the city for “standing up for consumers when the (provincial government) is doing nothing.” Don’t miss it: Alaska artist Tom Homza’s acrylics on display You can find him at EnCana’s Anchorage, Alaska, office during working hours but Tom Homza, EnCana Oil and Gas (USA) Inc.’s Alaska manager, spends his off hours creating impressive Alaska landscapes.
Homza’s acrylics are on display throughout the month of January at the Side Street Café in downtown Anchorage (412 G Street).
On Jan. 9 — the day this edition of Petroleum News is released electronically — there will be a reception for Homza from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Side Street Café, which is next to Darwin’s. Joint Pipeline Office staff on the move John Kerrigan, State Pipeline Coordinator for Alaska, has accepted a position out of state to be closer to his children, the Joint Pipeline Office said in early January.
No information was available about who would replace him.
Mike Thompson, who has completed his work on the development of monitoring programs for the trans-Alaska oil pipeline right-of-way renewal project, is moving to the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas. Robert O. Anderson joins World GTL Robert O. Anderson, former chairman and CEO of the Atlantic Richfield Co., has joined the advisory board of World GTL Inc., a private New York-based developer of gas to liquids projects founded by former executives of major oil companies.
World GTL said it believes that while very large gas fields — 5 trillion cubic feet or more — are required to make liquefied natural gas projects economic, GTL may be the only way to profitably develop remote natural gas fields of less than 3 tcf.
Anderson said World GTL “has built an outstanding management team” over the last three years “and is well positioned to capitalize on potentially great opportunities that the petroleum industry has overlooked.”
David Loring, president of World GTL, said the company brings host countries projects and technologies that will permit profitable development of undeveloped gas resources. There are hundreds of these “secondary” natural gas fields around the world that are considered to have almost no present commercial value, but could have considerable value using GTL technologies, he said.
Anderson has been active in the oil industry since graduating from The University of Chicago in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
He was CEO of Atlantic Richfield (formerly known as Atlantic Refining Co.) for 17 years, chairman of the board for 21 years and a member of the board of directors for 23 years. Anderson retired in 1986 to form an independent oil and gas company, Hondo Oil & Gas, was chairman and CEO of the Roswell, N.M.-based company from 1986-1994, and remains an active wildcatter for oil and gas. EnCana makes northern leadership changes Steve Harding, team leader for Alaska and Mackenzie, has changed positions and titles, an EnCana spokeswoman told Insider in late December.
Harding, based in Calgary, was appointed team leader for northern Canada in early December. Paul Myers, also Calgary-based, is the new Gulf of Mexico/Alaska team leader.
“The Alaska exploration team now reports to our USA region,” she said. The team used to report to “exploration and international joint ventures,” also referred to as new ventures.
EnCana’s headquarters are in Calgary. The giant independent’s U.S. headquarters are in Denver. Red Cavaney to speak at Meet Alaska The Alaska Support Industry Alliance will hold its annual Meet Alaska conference Jan. 23 at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. This year’s theme: “Today’s Look at Tomorrow’s Technology.”
Mike Leavitt, administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, is the keynote speaker.
The speakers list includes Red Cavaney, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute; James Slutz, deputy assistant secretary of oil and gas for the U.S. Department of Energy; Kevin Meyers, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska; Joe Leone, president of ConocoPhillips’ Upstream Technologies; Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration (Alaska); Tony Meggs, BP’s group vice president, technologies; U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Richard Neufeld, British Columbia Minister of Energy and Mines; Diana Severs Ferguson, president of Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure.
Call the Alliance at 907-563-2226 or register online at www.alaskaalliance.com. Westport appoints Keel to head GOM division Denver-based Westport Resources appointed Allan D. Keel as vice president and general manager of its Gulf of Mexico division in early January.
Keel worked with Westport from 1996 to 2000, during which time the independent launched its offshore operations.
Keel was formerly president and COO of Mariner Energy, an independent active in the Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico, and was with Energen Resources for 12 years.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from the University of Alabama and a master’s in business administration from Vanderbilt University.
Westport is active primarily in the Rocky Mountains, Permian Basin/Midcontinent, Gulf Coast and offshore Gulf of Mexico.
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