2006

President Bush Friday signed into law the “Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement and Safety Act of 2006,” which reauthorizes and amends the Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety programs, including establishing new civil penalties for third-party excavators that fail to follow the nationwide one-call program and cause damage to pipelines.

The cash market defied light heating load in the East, prior-day futures weakness, the “weekend effect” and bearish storage expectations by staging a rally at most points Thursday.

In this tortoise and hare story, the tortoise spends years building an energy empire with pipelines and terminals, many part of a master limited partnership (MLP), that rewards investors handsomely. The hare sells most of his assets, some to the tortoise, and pins his hopes on becoming a savvy financial player in energy and other commodities.

The decision by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney last Tuesday to approve the proposed Northeast Gateway and Neptune offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals represents the last major hurdle for the two projects, which could become the first new LNG import terminals along the East Coast of the United States to successfully navigate through the challenging regulatory and political process.

FERC Thursday issued an administrative policy statement that identifies the process it will use in assessing civil penalties in enforcement actions that are not resolved through settlement.

DKRW Energy LLC and a subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corp. received three environmental permits for their proposed joint venture liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and 1 Bcf/d pipeline facilities in Sonora, Mexico.

Former Dynegy Inc. trader Michelle Valencia — who was convicted in August of seven counts of wire fraud for reporting false trade data to gas price index publishers (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7) — was denied her request for acquittal or a new trial in a Dec. 14 judge’s order.

With Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ (KMP) Rockies Express pipeline project under way and its own shares trading at a discount, now is an opportune time for Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) management to take the company private, an industry analyst told NGI.

After four weeks of testimony and two days of deliberation, jurors in the false price reporting trial of two former natural gas traders rendered a hard-fought split verdict that left defense lawyers scratching their heads.