Appears

Coalbed methane (CBM) production, which up to now has been mostly centered in the Rocky Mountain Basin, appears to be where it’s at for both large and small domestic producers, with several recent announcements to beef up exploration and production in not only the well known basin in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, but also in smaller plays around the United States.

Kern River Gas Transmission appears to have pulled off a coup in the competition to serve new merchant electric generation loads in California’s frenetic race to build new in-state power plants in its plans to construct a 32-mile, 24-inch-diameter pipeline extension directly to the 750-MW High Desert Power Plant now under construction in the open spaces about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

It now appears less likely that El Paso Natural Gas will be placing new bi-directional gas transportation capacity between Daggett, CA, and Ehrenberg, AZ, to facilitate increased in-state California transportation options. The pipeline intended to use portions of the converted All American pipeline to increase capacity between the two major western market locations, but a binding open season revealed insufficient market interest, El Paso said in a bulletin board notice.

In what appears to be a perfect match, Sempra Energy’s communications unit has come up with a process to marry natural gas with fiber optics. If successful and approved by the various public utility commissions around the country, Sempra could solve one of the telecommunications industry’s biggest problems — transport — by using the nation’s gas pipelines to carry fiber optic cable from outlying networks into buildings.

It now appears less likely that El Paso Natural Gas will be placing new bi-directional gas transportation capacity between Daggett, CA, and Ehrenberg, AZ, to facilitate increased in-state California transportation options. The pipeline intended to use portions of the converted All American pipeline to increase capacity between the two major western market locations, but a binding open season revealed insufficient market interest, El Paso said in a bulletin board notice.

Natural gas demand will rise with growth in electric generation, but gas supply appears to be growing at an even faster pace, according to Energy Security Analysis Inc.(ESAI). The firm said it now expects “continued downward pressure” on gas prices through 2002. It estimates that domestic production, Canadian imports and liquefied natural gas (LNG) will equal an increase in supply of 3.6% in 2001 and 4% in 2002.

Natural gas demand will rise with growth in electric generation, but gas supply appears to be growing at an even faster pace, according to Energy Security Analysis Inc.(ESAI). The firm said this week it now expects “continued downward pressure” on gas prices through 2002. It estimates that the expansion of supplies from domestic production, Canadian imports and liquefied natural gas (LNG) will equal to an increase of 3.6% in 2001 and 4% in 2002.

Executives with NiSource Inc. can start breathing easier now as it appears that their company’s hard-fought and much-delayed merger with Columbia Energy Group last November (see NGI, Nov. 6, 2000) is beginning to show its benefits. CEO Gary L. Neale told shareholders at NiSource’s annual meeting last Wednesday that the merger remains on track to add to the company’s earnings in 2001.

Executives with NiSource Inc. can start breathing easier now as it appears that their company’s hard-fought and much-delayed merger with Columbia Energy Group last November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 1, 2000) is beginning to show its benefits. CEO Gary L. Neale told shareholders at NiSource’s annual meeting on Wednesday that the merger remains on track to add to the company’s earnings in 2001.