2002

Eastern Canadians are not only being denied access to most natural gas produced offshore of Nova Scotia, they also are being made to pay a premium for the limited supplies they can divert from exports to New England, the National Energy Board (NEB) has been told. The complaint was made by New Brunswick’s assistant deputy energy minister, Donald Barnett. It forms part of the provincial government’s case for an exception to be made from free trade in gas with the U.S. in order to hold back supplies traveling on Maritimes & Northeast through eastern Canada. Hearings have been called for July 15 in Fredericton, NB.

FERC last Wednesday asked the power industry to provide it with a progress report on efforts to achieve coordination between the development of industry reliability standards and business practices, while also reiterating a prior warning that it will establish its own process to ensure coordination if industry cannot agree on an effective mechanism.

Enron Corp.’s interim CEO Stephen Cooper presented a formal draft to move the company’s core energy assets out from under the Chapter 11 reorganization and instead spin-off a business unit with three segments: transportation services, power distribution, and generation and production in North, Central and South America. The proposal, which would separate the core asset portfolio from the bankruptcy estate, could be completed this year, Cooper said, if the unsecured creditors’ committee and the judge overseeing the case approve.

BP’s Atlantis discovery, a deepwater field in the southern Green Canyon region of the Gulf of Mexico, now may hold 575 MMboe of reserves, 275 million more than first estimated four years ago, which would make it the third largest oil and gas field ever discovered in the Gulf. BP’s Thunder Horse field is the largest oil and gas find ever in the Gulf.

The federal government, state agencies and individual natural gas pipelines need to work cooperatively to develop emergency-response plans that clear the path for the rapid reconstruction of facilities damaged in either terrorist attacks, natural disasters or by ruptures to pipeline systems, federal and state officials agreed last week, as they met to carve out their roles during emergency situations.

Staff at the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) has scheduled a workshop for early next month related to staff’s ongoing probe into the overscheduling of power requirements in the Texas wholesale energy market during the early stages of the state’s retail electricity pilot program last summer.

Two Connecticut-to-Long Island natural gas pipeline projects — the jointly sponsored Islander East Pipeline and an Iroquois Gas Transmission expansion — will face potential delays at the state level as a result of a recent executive order issued by Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, according to the state’s Siting Council. But the pipelines doubt this will hold up their projects at FERC.

In an effort to keep the country’s citizens informed on the latest happenings in the industry, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said that it has teamed with the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (SEPAC) to create a new, independent center of knowledge about the Canadian oil and gas industry.

A natural gas pipeline running from the Mackenzie Delta appears to be more likely in the near term than any pipeline from Alaska, according to a panel of industry executives who spoke at the Ziff Energy Group’s North American Gas Strategies Conference in Houston last week. Among those who concluded there will be a Canadian pipe first was a BP executive, whose company has been one of main proponents in moving Alaska gas south.