2007

FERC Thursday denied a request of Tennessee Gas Pipeline to acquire the capacity entitlements that Dynegy Marketing and Trade holds to a portion of Columbia Gulf Transmission’s capacity on offshore Louisiana pipeline facilities.

Canada’s northern natural gas pipeline project stirred up a hornet’s nest of environmental protest when roving regulatory hearings made their sole foray into a big southern city, but project sponsors didn’t shrink from the swarm.

The U.S. natural gas industry is one-third of the way toward achieving the most desirable supply-demand scenario outlined in a 2005 American Gas Foundation (AGF) study, the foundation said last week. While the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) has brought progress on a number of industry goals, much more work remains, the AGF said.

GE Energy Financial Services is making its first equity investment in natural gas storage, acquiring a preferred equity interest in the Bobcat salt dome gas storage project in St. Landry Parish, LA, for $65 million from Houston-based private equity fund Haddington Energy Partners III LP (see NGI, July 3, 2006).

GE Energy Financial Services is making its first equity investment in natural gas storage, acquiring a preferred equity interest in the Bobcat salt dome gas storage project in St. Landry Parish, LA, for $65 million from Houston-based private equity fund Haddington Energy Partners III LP (see Daily GPI, June 28, 2006).

The U.S. natural gas industry is one-third of the way toward achieving the most desirable supply-demand scenario outlined in a 2005 American Gas Foundation (AGF) study, the foundation said Tuesday. While the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) has brought progress on a number of industry goals, much more work remains, the AGF said.

Calypso U.S. Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of SUEZ Energy North America Inc., has asked FERC to reconsider a January order that denied Calypso’s request to begin construction of the U.S leg of an offshore Florida pipeline before an affiliate has received regulatory approval to build an associated liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Bahamas and a connecting Bahamian pipeline. Calypso is seeking rehearing so that it can interconnect with affiliate Calypso LNG LLC’s proposed deepwater LNG port.

Without discussion, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last Thursday put an end to long-standing challenges by Southern California Edison Co. to operations and wholesale pricing by Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) for supplies it distributes to Edison and other major customers in the southern half of the state. The CPUC also dismissed petitions for modification of the SoCalGas restructuring case that was finalized late last year with the adoption of a new system of firm access rights on the utility’s transmission system.

Gas storage withdrawals during the week that ended Feb. 9 totaled a massive 259 Bcf, merely 1 Bcf shy of the all-time record set during the week of Jan. 17, 1997, the Energy Information (EIA) reported last week. Furthermore, the cold last week is expected to lead to yet another 200-plus Bcf withdrawal, further diminishing the surplus compared to the five-year average and putting storage levels much closer to what would be considered normal for this time of year.