Acting

FERC Monday dismissed a complaint accusing El Paso Corp.’s Southern Natural Gas of acting improperly in awarding capacity during an open season that closed in August.

Interior Department Acting Inspector General Mary L. Kendall has recommended stricter controls on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction process and tougher requirements for bidders to avoid a repeat of the scene last December where a bad-faith bidder disrupted a Utah auction to protest the impact of drilling on the environment (see NGI, Dec. 22, 2008).

Interior Department Acting Inspector General Mary L. Kendall has recommended stricter controls on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) auction process and tougher requirements for bidders to avoid a repeat of the scene last December where a bad-faith bidder disrupted a Utah auction to protest the impact of drilling on the environment (see Daily GPI, Dec. 22, 2008).

Despite the economic downturn and a drop in natural gas prices there has not been much of a decline in demand, according to Steven Reich, acting director of FERC’s Office of Enforcement.

The CEO of Continental Resources Inc. last week said he’s gotten “a lot of support” from fellow producers since his company asked Oklahoma regulators to reduce natural gas output levels. “Nobody wants to waste a valuable resource,” Harold Hamm told NGI.

President Obama Friday tapped Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, a favorite of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), as acting chairman of the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

A bygone era of fierce economic independence is fading into history as Canada’s main natural gas-producing province, acting in the name of industrial efficiency, quietly allows a once-unthinkable transfer of jurisdiction to the federal government.

A bygone era of fierce economic independence is fading into history as Canada’s main natural gas-producing province, acting in the name of industrial efficiency, quietly allows a once-unthinkable transfer of jurisdiction to the federal government.

Responding to industry claims last month that FERC is acting as both judge and prosecutor, the agency last Thursday announced that a number of changes are being made to its show-cause enforcement procedures to expand the protections of companies involved in civil penalty cases. FERC also denied Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partner’s request for rehearing of a July show-cause order accusing it of manipulation of the natural gas markets at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) and Waha, TX, trading hubs.