2006

Arcadia Gas Storage (AGS) is holding a nonbinding open season through Jan. 18 for salt cavern natural gas storage service in North Louisiana. AGS is offering a total of 15.5 Bcf of working gas storage capacity to be developed in three phases at its existing facility near Arcadia, LA.

FERC has given Calypso U.S. Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of SUEZ Energy North America Inc., the environmental go-ahead on proposed modifications to its pipeline project that are designed to accommodate the construction of a proposed deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) port off the southeastern coast of Florida.

FERC is being transformed by the 2005 federal Energy Policy Act (EPAct) to more of an enforcement agency rather than an accounting-focused government agency, according to Commissioner Marc Spitzer, who spoke Tuesday at the Western Power Supply Forum II in Burlingame, CA. This is a transition that began at the state regulatory commission level, from which Spitzer just emerged in Arizona to his role as a new federal regulator.

Johnnie Burton, director of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was involved in a cover-up of the mistakes made in the 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas leases that could cost the federal government billions of dollars over the life of the leases if the contracts are not renegotiated, said a spokesman for a congressman who has been investigating the matter.

Johnnie Burton, director of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), was involved in a cover-up of the mistakes made in the 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas leases that could cost the federal government billions of dollars over the life of the leases if the contracts are not renegotiated, said a spokesman for a congressman who has been investigating the matter.

Calgary-based Pengrowth Energy Trust will boost its production 27% and proved-plus-probable reserves 22% with the acquisition of Canadian oil and gas properties and undeveloped lands (the “CP properties”) from ConocoPhillips for nearly C$1.04 billion (US$914 million).

FERC on Wednesday issued a certificate for Equitrans LP to build its proposed Big Sandy Pipeline to ease the capacity constraint in the eastern part of Kentucky that has led to natural gas production being shut in over the past two years. This marks the second pipeline project that the agency has approved for the eastern Kentucky region in less than two months.

Calgary-based Pengrowth Energy Trust will boost its production 27% with the acquisition of Canadian oil and gas properties and undeveloped lands (the “CP properties”) from ConocoPhillips for nearly C$1.04 billion (US$914 million).

Warmer-than-normal temperatures and an increase in nuclear power output last week put a dent in gas demand that could lead to another net gas storage injection in the weekly storage report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), according to a number of industry experts.