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 Thu, Jun 4 1992 Date: Thu, 4 Jun 92 05:20:44 EDT Message-ID: 06-04 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update June 4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network FALLING SUPPLY LIFTS PRICES: Oil prices rose to new closing highs for 1992 as traders responded to a report showing U.S. stockpiles fell last week. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in July settled at $22.43 a barrel, up 32 cents, at the Mercantile Exchange. Oil's previous closing high for the year was $22.11, set Friday. Prices have been advancing lately amid indications that Saudi Arabia wants prices to go up. REFINED PRODUCTS ADVANCE: Refined petroleum products also gained ground Wednesday at the Mercantile Exchange. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in July settled at 67.31 cents a gallon, up 1.52 cents. Home heating oil for delivery in July settled at 60.81 cents a gallon, up .43 cent. Natural gas prices fell sharply, with contracts for delivery in July settling at $1.586 per 1,000 cubic feet, down 6.6 cents. LETTER ON PRAIRIE ISLAND OUT: Spent nuclear fuel from Northern States Power Co.'s Prairie Island atomic plant will never be kept there permanently, Energy Secretary James Watkins has promised in a letter to Minnesota officials. Power company officials released a copy of the May 29 letter on Wednesday to bolster their plan to build a temporary, dry cask "monitored retrievable storage" facility. (For more, see special Prairie package below.) IRAQ BEGINS WORK ON REFINERY: Iraq, banned by the United Nations from exporting oil for the past 22 months, said Wednesday it has started work on a new oil refinery. The refinery, with a 290,000-barrel-a-day capacity, will be built in Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, the government said. Also, thousands of yards of cable were stripped from two Iraqi nuclear sites as experts prepared to demolish the facilities. UTILITY HAS TO MOVE POWER LINE: Illinois regulators have ordered Commonwealth Edison Co. to relocate within three years an extra-voltage power line installed in 1987. A suburban Chicago man's complaints that the line poses a health hazard and garbles his TV reception prompted the order from the Illionis Commerce Commission. Commonwealth Edison said the line is not a health hazard and the decision makes no sense. REDA PUMP HAS GOOD NEWS: Reda Pump, a Bartlesville, Okla.-based oil and gas firm, Wednesday said that it will not return to a four-day workweek and it won't have to lay off workers in the near future thanks to steady orders. The company, which employs 800, had gone to a four-day workweek in April and hinted at layoffs. UTILITY TO GIVE REFUND: An average refund of $11.40 will go to electric power customers of IPS Electric Co., Sioux City, Iowa, for services dating back to August, the utility said Wednesday. Also, rates will drop about $1.03 per month. The state Office of Consumer Advocate had accused IPS of over-charging customers by $16.5 million. CALIF. PUTS UP FOR EVS: California has pledged up to $2 million to back two consortia of businesses trying to establish an electric vehicle industry in the state. One proposes a new automobile firm. The other aims at buses, parts making and getting California ready for recharging. The consortia are trying to get a share of $12 million in grants being offered by the Federal Transit Administration for EV projects. LA. LAND TO SELL DEBT ISSUES: The Louisiana Land and Exploration Co. Wednesday said that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $300 million of debt securities. The company plans to use the proceeds from the sale for capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes. The company may also use some or all of the proceeds to acquire interests in oil and gas producing properties. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON PRAIRIE: MPUC TAKES UP ISSUE THIS MONTH: North States Power Co. wants to build a temporary facility to hold radioactive materials until the Department of Energy's permanent storage site can be completed at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The NSP request for a temporary storage facility will come before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission later this month. JUDGE DOUBTS PERMANENT PLAN: Minnesota administrative law judge Allen Klein ruled in early April that the NSP storage plan seemed safe and reasonable, but questioned whether DOE could meet deadlines for removing the waste to its planned permanent site in Nevada. "Recent developments suggest that ... the department will develop a permanent nuclear waste repository in a timely fashion," Watkins wrote. DOE FACILITY TO BE DONE BY 2010: DOE plans to build its own temporary storage site at an undetermined site by 1998, then transfer the material to the permanent facility once it is completed. Watkins' letter notes that lawsuits that delayed the Yucca Mountain project have been resolved, and that DOE is making "good progress" toward a permanent facility, now scheduled to be completed by 2010. DENIAL OF SITE MAY SHUT PLANT: NSP chairman James Howard repeated NSP's claim that Prairie Island might have to shut down if it is denied its own temporary storage site. "DOE's commitment eliminates the primary concern in the administrative law judge's recent opinion on NSP's dry cask storage application," Howard said in a press release that termed Prairie Island "one of the best operated plants in the country." (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