Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Tue, Apr 7 1992 Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 05:44:02 EDT Message-ID: 04-07 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update April 7, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network DRILLERS BLAME WASHINGTON: President Bush has turned his back on marine oil interests and Congress is bent on putting them out of business, industry leaders charged Monday. "This industry is just barely holding on," said William O'Malley, incoming chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association. "It's really gotten to the serious stage." NOIA represents about 300 oil and gas companies. (For more, see special Drillers package below.) OIL PRICES HIT YEAR'S HIGHS: Oil prices reached new highs for the year Monday. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in May settled at $20.45 per barrel, up 16 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest mark for the benchmark U.S. crude since early December. Oil has been rising sharply recently amid cold weather in the Northeast and production cuts by OPEC members. GASOLINE BOOSTED BY TROUBLES: A series of unrelated refinery troubles, including a fire at the Chevron Corp. facility in Port Arthur, Texas, pushed up gasoline futures on Monday. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in May settled at 63.47 cents a gallon, up .82 cent. Home heating oil for delivery in May settled at 55.96 cents a gallon, up .28 cent. May natural gas settled at $1.315 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 0.4 cent. NRC BLASTS NORTHEAST UTILITIES: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Monday charged Northeast Utilities with tolerating an atmosphere that discouraged reporting of safety concerns at its four nuclear power plants. The NRC recommended a slate of reforms and stricter oversight of New England's largest electric utility. In a one-page statement issued by Northeast, it did not contest the key findings of the report. COURT SLOWS MERGER: A Delaware Court of Chancery Monday enjoined the proposed merger of Adobe Resources Corp. with Santa Fe Energy Resources. The court said that the proxy statement failed to disclose that certain Adobe directors believed in the summer of 1991 that it was "a bad time to sell Adobe." The court said Adobe could redo the statement and, subject to stockholder approval, proceed with the merger. CLEANUP FIRM TO BE PROTECTED: The company that wins the multibillion dollar contract to clean up the Fernald uranium plant will be largely protected by taxpayers from lawsuits stemming from its careless behavior. At most, the company could lose the mulitimillion dollar bonus available to it every six months. Department of Energy officials say the protection was needed to get qualified companies to bid on the cleanup job. CAP ON PROTECTION SOUGHT: DOE's protection of the company that cleans up the Fernald uranium plant has riled some. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said DOE should put a cap on government exposure, as required by the USA's primary cleanup law. A regulation proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would limit taxpayer payouts under that law to $50 million. OIL STOCKS POST GAINS: Higher crude oil prices are giving oil company stocks a lift. On Monday, Mobil climbed 2 1:2 to $62 5:8 and Texaco rose 2 to $61 after Kidder Peabody upgraded both stocks from buy to hold, saying both could hit $65 a share. Also, Exxon gained 1 7:8 to $57 3:4 after Kidder made positive statements. Unocal added 1 5:8 to $22 3:4 and Amerada Hess, up 2 7:8 to $42. PACIFIC NUCLEAR ACQUIRES SEMPER: Pacific Nuclear has acquired the assets of Semper Technology Inc., Sterling, Va., it was announced Monday. Semper provides engineering and information systems services to utilities with nuclear facilities. Kristin Allen, Semper's president, will become vice president and general manager of Pacific Nuclear's Engineering Services Group, of which Semper will become an operating division. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON DRILLERS: SOME SAY THEY'LL MOVE: Many NOIA members say they'll move their operations to other countries if they're denied access to fields on the Outer Continental Shelf fringing the mainland USA and Alaska. NOIA's annual meeting in Washington Monday comes just days before the House Interior and Merchant Marine committees take up legislation to put most of the off-shore USA off limits to exploration. LAWS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS BLAMED: NOIA's William O'Malley said 350,000 oil and gas jobs have disappeared in the last 10 years. Drilling-rig counts have never been lower, he said. Energy groups blame environmental lobbies and strict federal, state and local regulations. Others say a "drill at any cost" policy won't cure the nation's energy deficit and that the risks of spills or other disasters are too high. SENATE HAS OK'D DRILLING BAN: Ocean-energy interests are trying to derail the drilling bans rolling through Congress. A bill approved in the Senate would extend drilling moratoriums to all of the East Coast and most of the West Coast. Versions unveiled in the House would extend the moratorium to the year 2000 and would extend the bans to new parts of Alaska and parts of the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico. RULES WORRY INDUSTRY: This is happening as energy companies are excitedly studying what could be a gigantic oil field in the deep waters of the central and western Gulf of Mexico, but are skittish about federal regulation, O'Malley said. Industry executives put most of the blame on Congress. But they saved some for Bush as well. "He hasn't helped the oil industry in years and years," O'Malley said. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (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