Appetite

Ten customers with an appetite for up to 750 MMcf/d of additional natural gas supplies showed interest in a potential extension of the North Baja international transmission pipeline, according to the pipeline’s joint backers, subsidiaries of Sempra Energy and National Energy and Gas Transmission, the renamed former PG&E Corp. merchant energy unit now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Looking to help meet North America’s ever-increasing appetite for natural gas, companies such as El Paso Corp. and Shell have been looking outside the box to find new sources of natural gas, and new methods to deliver it to the continent. El Paso announced that it has finalized LNG agreements with a Norwegian consortium, while Shell has proposed its floating liquefied natural gas technology (FLNG) for Timor Sea production. Shell also announced last week that it will invest in the first LNG export project in Venezuela, which intends to tap 10 Tcf of gas reserves and send them to the U.S. East Coast (see related story).

Fueled by a weakened appetite for natural gas in the industrial sector, forecasts of normal weather for winter, bulging storage stocks and a grim economic fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Natural Gas Supply Association projected last Tuesday that gas demand will be flat this winter compared to last year.

Fueled by a weakened appetite for natural gas in the industrial sector, forecasts of normal weather for winter, bulging storage stocks and a grim economic fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Natural Gas Supply Association projected Tuesday that gas demand will be flat this winter compared to last year.

Given the nation’s growing appetite for natural gas, especially by the power generation sector, state and local governments are going to have to step up to the plate and play a greater role in the coordination of permitting and environmental-review efforts so that the pipeline and distribution infrastructure needed to support the expanding demand can be built, according to a new joint report.

Calpine Corp., the San Jose, CA-based merchant power plantdeveloper, maintains a voracious appetite for natural gas that itexpects to reach 6 to 7 Bcf/d in the next five years, but it isunfazed by the current price spike and supply tightness headinginto winter. A diversified portfolio approach that aims for up to aquarter of its supplies coming from its own reserves makes Calpineofficials shrug off worries about future gas markets.

Electric generation’s growing appetite for natural gas ispropelling rapid changes in the gas industry’s traditional businesspractices that will pose greater challenges to pipeline safety,says the chairman of the INGAA Pipeline Safety Task Force.

Alarmed by the U.S. appetite for foreign oil, key SenateRepublicans last week introduced a broad-based legislative packagethat would open up areas that have been closed to drilling in thepast, as well as offer tax measures and other incentives tostimulate the production of crude oil, natural gas and alternativeenergy in the Lower 48 states and Alaska.