Agree

To stay competitively in the game, power plant players of thefuture need to manage a lot of risks: fuel, market, financial andpolitical, which can change almost as quickly as the weather,according to a panel of electric power honchos speaking atyesterday’s Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ CERAWeek 2001meeting in Houston.

There appears to be one issue that Republicans and Democrats onCapitol Hill can agree on — gas prices are too high. ChairmanFrank H. Murkowski (R-AK) of the Senate Energy Committee andRanking Minority Member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) have called for anoversight hearing to look into rising natural gas prices.

Under the terms of an agreed court order announced Tuesday,Naperville, IL-based Nicor Inc. must identify all the homes toinspect for possible mercury contamination that occurred frommishandled gas regulators.

The final remaining maritime boundary treaty between Mexico andthe United States, signed Friday by President Clinton and MexicanPresident Ernesto Zedillo, will give Mexico nearly two-thirds of amineral-rich area that is thought to contain huge amounts ofuntapped oil and gas. Known as the Western Gap, the area has servedas a platform between both countries in the western gap of the Gulfof Mexico, beyond the 200-mile range that officially definesnational territories.

Gas price bulls can sit pretty this summer as industry analystsagree that the stage is set for strong demand, stressed supply andhigher prices in both the futures and cash markets.

Proponents and opponents of the controversial multi-state gaspipeline project — Independence Pipeline, SupplyLink andMarketLink — agree on one point: none are satisfied with theinterim order that put the projects on hold until they can produceenough contracts to justify market need. Both sides seek rehearing.

Although it gets 13 parties to agree on solving the naggingproblem of imbalances, a new Pacific Gas and Electric settlementagreement on transmission and storage is just the first of a numberof changes anticipated under California’s ongoing gas industryrestructuring. Even for this step, state regulators still mustreact to the agreement and then market participants must assesswhether the provisions will result in the market efficiencies andcost-savings that shippers are anticipating.

Although getting 13 parties to agree on how to solve the naggingproblem of imbalances, a new Pacific Gas and Electric Co.settlement agreement on its transmission and storage operations isjust the first of a number of changes that are anticipated underCalifornia’s ongoing gas industry restructuring program. Even forthis step, state regulators still must react to the agreement andthen market participants must assess whether the provisions willresult in the market efficiencies and cost-savings that shippersare anticipating.

After more than a year of wrangling between Oklahoma Natural GasCo. and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) an agreement onwhich of the LDC’s transmission and distribution assets will beregulated and which will be unregulated and open to competitivebidding has been hammered out.