Aliso

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) continues to test wells at the shuttered Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field and hopes to be given permission to restore at least partial operations there by the end of summer, the company said.

Spurred by angry residents who allege people are still getting sick from a metallic chemical residue left in their homes, an activist group on Friday stepped up pressure on officials in Los Angeles to close Southern California Gas Co.’s (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field.

If limitations can be removed at California’s now-closed largest natural gas storage facility, an increase in withdrawal capacity could lower, if not eliminate, the risk of gas curtailments leading to rolling power outages during peak demand days this summer, according to a state-mandated report released on Wednesday.

Severe heat hit Southern California Monday, driving temperatures into the triple digits and spiking the highest statewide electricity demand of the year with more to follow on Tuesday, but the taxed natural gas system appeared to be holding up, even with the state’s largest underground gas storage field closed.

Natural gas for Thursday delivery jumped once again as weather forecasts called for western heat to migrate east under a broad high pressure ridge. A few points tucked along the Eastern Seaboard registered losses, but otherwise all other market locations scored stout double-digit gains.

A positive outlook for summer electricity supplies for California does not eliminate risks in the southern half of the state due to the shut-in Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in Los Angeles.

California state regulators on Thursday issued a proposed settlement totaling nearly $4 billion in the combined general rate cases for Sempra Energy’s two utilities in the state: Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E).

Activist groups opposed to natural gas storage facilities held a rally Sunday at the entrance to the closed 3,600-acre Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility in the far northern fringe of Los Angeles, calling for state officials to permanently shutter the 86 Bcf capacity facility.

Activist groups opposed to natural gas storage facilities held a rally Sunday at the entrance to the closed 3,600-acre Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility in the far northern fringe of Los Angeles, calling for state officials to permanently shutter the 86 Bcf capacity facility.