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El Paso Energy Partners and joint-venture partner Valero Energy are launching a $300 million project loan Wednesday to finance construction of a 390-mile oil pipeline, a deal that some financiers say may draw in traditional power lenders looking for a diversity play amid thin generation deals. "There has been a lot of interest," says one project financier who will be looking at the deal, which launches with a bank meeting in Houston.

Mirant has bagged bank approval to remove default provisions from its loan covenants. The move allows the Atlanta-based IPP to focus on restructuring its debt, says Lloyd Avram, a spokesman, declining comment on what debt it's looking to refinance. The covenant changes remove the potential for default and afford the company time to prepare a restructuring plan, which bankers say should be in place by the end of next month (PFR, 4/21).

Robert Day, a former power project financier at Barclays Capital in New York, has returned to the Big Apple as an executive v.p. for North America at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. One market official says Day took up the new slot a few weeks back after several years in Australia, and has a brief to build up CBA's Big Apple franchise. Day confirmed his recent arrival, but declined comment on his new role.

Bankers expect to give Calpine the green light to slow down construction on two plants covered by its $1 billion CCFC1 non-recourse facility, but they add it's less clear what will happen on a proposed slowdown on one plant in the $2.5 billion CCFC2 loan. The San Jose, Calif.-based IPP is looking to get banker approval as a means of saving capex and also delaying the launch of plants in tough regional markets (PFR, 4/14). An initial target for getting approval of April 19 was missed, but lenders are not reading too much into that, saying complex documentation issues made that at best a hopeful target. They now expect the issue to be resolved within the next two weeks.

Following is a directory of ongoing generation asset sales. The accuracy of the information, which is derived from many sources, is deemed reliable but cannot be guaranteed. To report new auctions or changes in the status of a sale, please call Will Ainger, managing editor, at (44-20) 7303-1735 or e-mail wainger@euromoneyplc.com .

Secondary market activity in NRG Energy's bank debt has picked up in recent days with some $30 million sold by a European bank last Thursday at 41-41.5 This follows the changing hands of a $40 million piece in the low 40 less than two weeks ago, traders told PFR sister publication Loan Markets Week.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Washington, D.C. authority that regulates nationally chartered banks, last week approved Bank of America's request to trade physically settled electricity contracts in the U.S. "It's a momentous occasion," says one former BofA commodity trader, noting the commercial bank has been looking to land OCC approval for over two years.

FPL Group, the largest wind generator in the U.S., is forecasting that it will be able to line up long-term financing for its wind farm portfolio over the summer. Moray Dewhurst, cfo, told analysts last week there is a lot of work involved in getting lenders comfortable with portfolio risk, including preparing engineering reports and wind data. However, he added, "I'm very optimistic," about closing the financing around mid-year. Project financiers have been talking about a wind deal in the $400-500 million range (PFR, 1/20) that would make it the biggest wind financing to hit the U.S. market.

Veteran oil trader Chris Dorfman has joined Sempra Energy in London to set up an oil trading desk. The U.S. energy concern already trades oil in Europe out of Geneva and will continue to do so, says Dorfman, declining further comment.

Financing for the 750 MW El Cajon hydroelectric project in Nayarit, Mexico, will likely take the form of a $700 million five-year loan, with financiers targeting the fourth quarter to seal and syndicate the deal. A consortium led by Mexican construction company Empresas ICA Sociedad Controladora recently bagged the mandate to build the plant and retained Westdeutsche Landesbank to arrange financing (PFR, 3/24).