Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Mon, Jun 29 1992 Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 05:27:36 EDT Message-ID: 06-29 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update June 29, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OIL PRICES END WEEK WITH DROP: Oil prices fell Friday, quietly ending a volatile week. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in August settled at $22.44 a barrel, down 14 cents at the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, the benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 18 cents a barrel. Home heating oil for delivery in July settled at 62.27 cents a gallon, down .89 cent for the day but up .81 cent for the week. UNLEADED SLIDES FOR WEEK: Unleaded gasoline for delivery in July settled at 62.90 cents a gallon, down .54 cent for the day and 2.45 cents for the week. Traders say it is odd for heating oil to be gaining on gasoline. Natural gas prices were mixed, with contracts for delivery in August settling at $1.519 a 1,000 cubic feet, down 1.1 cents. For the week, natural gas for next-month delivery fell 3.7 cents. EXXON CHIEF'S BODY FOUND: The body of kidnapped Exxon International President Sidney Reso was found in the southern New Jersey Pine Barrens, the FBI said Sunday. Searchers had been looking for eight weeks for Reso. Morris County Prosecutor W. Michael Murphy said felony murder charges would be brought Monday. He didn't say whether both Arthur and Irene Seale, being held for the abduction, would be charged. ENVIRONMENTALISTS BACK BILL: Environmentalists Friday scrambled to support a bill aimed at making sure the West Valley nuclear site in New York doesn't become a regional or national low-level radioactive waste dump. Gov. Mario Cuomo Friday predicted that utilities with nuclear power plants may offer financial incentives to get residents to support reopening West Valley, which was closed in 1986, to store low-level waste. (For more, see special West Valley package below.) POOL GETS ECUADOR CONTRACTS: Pool Energy Services Co. said Friday that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Intairdril Ltd., has received contracts to furnish six land drilling and workover rigs in Ecuador. Intairdril will operate four rigs in the Oriente in northwest Ecuador. Also, a two-rig multi-well contract was received from Tripetrol Exploration and Production Co. for operations in the Pacoa Field. COMPANIES FILE TO SELL BONDS: Toledo Edison Co. and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. Friday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell as much as $495 million in mortgage bonds. Both are subsidiaries of Centerior Energy Corp. The Toledo Edison Co. filed to sell $250 million mortgage bonds. The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. filed with the SEC to sell $245 million mortgage bonds. HEAT PUMP PLAN APPROVAL SOUGHT: Virginia Power Friday asked the State Corporation Commission to approve a pilot customer service program that would make payments to residential heat pump owners for inspection and repair of their units. All heat pump owners living in individually metered, owner-occupied homes within the company's Virginia service area would be eligible to apply for the program promoting energy efficiency. PA. HAS THREE COSTLY UTILITIES: Three of the United States' five most expensive electric utilities are in Pennsylvania, a national association of utility regulators claims. According to the size of customer bills, the Philadelphia Electric Co. is third on the list. Pennsylvania Power Co. is fourth most expensive and Duquesne Light Co. is fifth. TWO TO REPLACE KAISER AT HANFORD: Low bidders Duke Engineering and Services and J.A. Jones Construction Services Co., both of Charlotte, N.C., will replace Kaiser Engineers as the main construction company at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state, according to the Department of Energy. The three-year contract is worth $100 million per year to the two firms. OIL SPILL BACTERIA FOR CONSUMERS: Microscopic bacteria used to help clean up oil spills are eating their way into the consumer market as an antidote for driveway grease spots and messy stoves. The microbes turn petroleum into a substance safe for fertilizer or fish food. The government allowed the bacteria to be used for the first time in the summer of 1990 on the Mega Borg spill off the Texas coast. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON WEST VALLEY: SITE WOULD BE CONSIDERED: A bill under consideration in the New York Legislature would allow the closed West Valley nuclear site to be included among state-owned sites considered for storage of low-level waste except that produced by nuclear power plants. Nuclear plants that generate 99% of the low-level waste in the state would have to store their waste in the plant where it was produced. BILL WOULD GIVE WEST VALLEY ALL: A competing bill introduced by Republican James Seward would have West Valley hold all the waste generated in New York state. The issue has taken on urgency because of a Supreme Court decision saying radioactive waste storage and disposal is the responsibility of the producer, not the state. Environmentalists fear that West Valley, south of Buffalo, could become a national waste dump. (End of package.) Energy Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM