Answer

Signaling what may be a frequent question-and-answer in the industry in the near future, Sempra Energy’s CEO was hit Thursday with questions from financial analysts on the firm’s exposure to Enron Corp. in its future business dealings as part of a third-quarter earnings conference call.

New and improved drilling technology is turning out to be partof the answer to the emerging natural gas supply squeeze, at leastin Canada. Horizontal wells, developed initially for oil, increasethe accessibility, raise the productivity and cut the overall costsof tapping gas fields too, says a study by the National EnergyBoard, the Oil and Gas Commission of British Columbia and the B.C.Ministry of Energy.

New and improved drilling technology is turning out to be partof the answer to the emerging natural gas supply squeeze, at leastin Canada. Horizontal wells, developed initially for oil, increasethe accessibility, raise the productivity and cut the overall costsof tapping gas fields too, says a study by the National EnergyBoard, the Oil and Gas Commission of British Columbia and the B.C.Ministry of Energy.

The Philadelphia Gas Commission’s (PGC) long term role as soleregulator of Philadelphia Gas Works’ (PGW) is coming to an end. PGWwill have to answer to a new governing body, the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission (PUC). The state agency will now set theutility’s rates, as well as follow up on customer complaints andconcerns.

The Philadelphia Gas Commission’s (PGC) long term role as soleregulator of Philadelphia Gas Works’ (PGW) is coming to an end. PGWwill have to answer to a new governing body, the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission (PUC). The state agency will now set theutility’s rates, as well as follow up on customer complaints andconcerns.

In an answer to a complaint filed by Niagara Mohawk EnergyMarketing that was supported by a number of other power marketparticipants, the New York ISO told FERC last week that it is aware ofthe software problems that caused scheduled power exports to berejected in early May despite being commercially and economicallyviable. The rejection caused NMEM to lose $68,000 in four hours (seeDaily GPI, June 23). The ISO said ithopes to have repairs to its export software completed bymid-July. “Accordingly, the issues and requested relief in thecomplaint are essentially moot, and the complaint should therefore bedismissed,” the ISO told FERC. “The complaint suggests that thecurrent SCUC procedures were adopted in a deliberate effort todiscriminate against exports from New York. This is not true,” theISO said. “The SCUC protocols that caused the [Niagara Mohowk] exporton May 8 not to be scheduled were the result of the implementation ofassumptions made in the software development process in favor ofpreserving reliability…”

Building more greenfield natural gas pipelines to the Northeastis not the answer. In fact, massive switching from distillate oilto natural gas will not protect the region’s energy customers froma repeat of the heating oil price shocks that they experiencedearlier this year. If anything, it could aggravate prices not onlyfor distillate oil but for gas, the Energy InformationAdministration (EIA) said in a report issued yesterday.

While recognizing that congested areas in part of California’senergy grid need a combination of potential mitigation measures,including distributed generation, the serious discussion at astatewide energy roundtable last week remained ambivalent about howfast, and whether, the decentralized approach can make a meaningfulcontribution.

Petal Gas Storage Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crystal GasStorage Inc., filed its second application with FERC to add 3.6 Bcfof storage capacity to its Nos. 6 and 7 salt caverns in ForrestCounty, MS, last week. The first application, filed in July, wasdenied by FERC because it lacked detail.