2008

Eight years after their crimes were committed and two years after their convictions, two former natural gas traders were sentenced to prison terms by a Houston judge Thursday for reporting false price data to energy industry price index publishers.

Equitable Resources Inc. denied reports that it was pulling out of the Northeast Passage pipeline project, but rather said it merely has altered its game plan to get its Appalachian natural gas to market.

A federal judge has ruled against the Clinton administration-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR) and issued a permanent injunction against it, saying RACR violated national environmental laws. The decision could open millions of acres of western land to development.

FERC issued a favorable environmental review of MarkWest Pioneer LLC’s proposal to build a natural gas pipeline that would allow producers in the Woodford Shale area of Oklahoma to interconnect with the Midcontinent Express Pipeline, which is currently under construction. “Approval of the proposed project, with appropriate mitigating measures, would not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment,” FERC staff said in the environmental assessment on the project [CP05-404]. Denver-based MarkWest Pioneer’s proposed Arkoma Connector Pipeline would extend approximately 50 miles from an interconnect with the company’s gathering system in the Woodford Shale production area in southeastern Oklahoma to an interconnect with Midcontinent Express in Bennington, OK. The project also calls for the construction of approximately 19,500 hp of total compression at two compressor stations and associated facilities in Coal, Atoka and Bryan counties in Oklahoma. The proposed Arkoma Connector would have the capability to deliver 638,000 Dth/d out of the Woodford Shale area to the Bennington area. The pipeline is scheduled to begin operation in the second quarter of 2009, subject to FERC approval. MarkWest held a binding open season through April 21 for capacity on the Arkoma Connector (see NGI, March 24).

A federal judge has ruled against the Clinton administration-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR) and issued a permanent injunction against it, saying RACR violated national environmental laws. The decision could open millions of acres of western land to development.

When the sponsors of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) began to lay out their plans for the landmark natural gas pipeline, they locked in certain costs, including steel and labor, for the first half of the project. However, “that type of hedging is not available in today’s cost environment,” Sempra Energy CEO Donald Felsinger said. “The key point is that the Rockies Express or any similar pipeline couldn’t be duplicated at the same price.”

When the sponsors of the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) began to lay out their plans for the landmark natural gas pipeline, they locked in certain costs, including steel and labor, for the first half of the project. However, “that type of hedging is not available in today’s cost environment,” Sempra Energy CEO Donald Felsinger said. “The key point is that the Rockies Express or any similar pipeline couldn’t be duplicated at the same price.”

A climate change activist group in the Pacific Northwest Monday demonstrated against Northwest Natural Gas Co. for its support of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility and related pipeline as an offshoot of wider demonstrations in Portland, OR.

Responding to a recent court ruling overturning an order approving their nearly completed expansion project, Dominion Cove Point LNG LP and Dominion Transmission Inc. have called on FERC to urgently affirm and reissue all of the agency’s authorizations for the $700 million expansion of their liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Lusby, MD, and associated pipeline facilities.