SCANA, Santee Cooper Revise Interim Agreement To Extend Term

SCANA Corporation (NYSE:SCG) and Santee Cooper announced that the Interim Assessment Agreement with Westinghouse Electric Company, LLC relating to the nuclear construction project at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station has been revised to extend the term of the agreement through Aug 10, 2017, subject to bankruptcy court approval.

The agreement includes a transition and evaluation period, during which South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA, and V.C. Summer Nuclear Station project co-owner, Santee Cooper, can carry on with advancement projects on the site.

During this period, Fluor will continue in its current role and the project’s co-owners will carry on making weekly payments for work executed during the interim period.

The agreement extension facilitates the co-owners with extra time to uphold all of their alternatives by continuing construction on the project, while investigating all of the appropriate information for a comprehensive and careful evaluation. This will be used to decide the most prudent path forward. The aim is to arrive at a decision in the third quarter.

SCANA’s operations include generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to retail and wholesale customers in South Carolina. The company purchases, sells and transports natural gas to retail customers in South Carolina and southeastern Georgia; provides energy-related risk management services. It also acquires, owns and provides financing for nuclear fuel, fossil fuel and emission allowances. In addition, it offers fiber optic communications, ethernet services, and data center facilities.

Investor confidence on the SCANA stock is reflected in its price chart. Shares of the company gained 5.3% over the last three months, while the Zacks categorized Utility – Electric Power industry gained 0.2% in the same time span.

SCANA currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the same space include SunCoke Energy, Inc. (NYSE:SXC) , Enbridge Energy, L.P. (NYSE:EEP) and Canadian Natural Resources Limited Ltd. (TO:CNQ) . All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

SunCoke Energy delivered a positive earnings surprise of 120.0% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in two of the four trailing quarters with an average negative earnings surprise of 35.78%.

Enbridge Energy delivered a positive earnings surprise of 128.57% in the preceding quarter. The company beat estimates in three of the four trailing quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 38.22%.

Canadian Natural Resources delivered a positive earnings surprise of 30.77% in the preceding quarter. It surpassed estimates in two of the trailing four quarters with an average negative earnings surprise of 275.46%.

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