Asking

Saltville Gas Storage Co. LLC has filed an application with FERC asking the Commission to trim by more than 30% the certificated capacity of its gas storage field in southwestern Virginia.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday said it received a petition from The Williams Cos. asking the agency to reopen and modify an order that required the company to provide pipeline capacity to Kinder Morgan Operating LP, an operator of propane terminals, and to any competing pipeline wishing to connect to Williams’ natural gas processing plants.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is asking FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher to help facilitate talks between FERC staff and New York City energy personnel to address energy-related issues facing the Big Apple, including bolstering the transmission grid.

A federal judge in Houston Monday dismissed a motion by former Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling asking that their criminal charges be dismissed. Jury selection in their joint trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 30.

Kern River was in the unusual position Thursday of asking customers to refrain from drafting its system as low linepack conditions continued in all four segments. For much of this year it has been reporting high linepack. “It is imperative that operators only take their scheduled quantity,” the pipeline said. “In addition, if you have an imbalance that is owed to Kern River, please make arrangements to pay back this imbalance as soon as possible.”

Investors who lost money when Enron Corp. declared bankruptcy in late 2001 filed a petition on Friday asking the judge overseeing some of the bankruptcy proceedings to rule whether Merrill Lynch & Co. was a knowing participant in the former energy trader’s attempt to hide huge losses.

The gasification function and the pipeline loop portions of its Lake Charles, LA, LNG operations expansion are ready to go, Trunkline LNG said in asking FERC to authorize start-up and an interim tariff by July 20 to process and sendout expected LNG deliveries at the import terminal.

The U.S. Coast Guard said it is reopening the public comment period on a petition from the City of Fall River, MA, asking for regulations establishing thermal and vapor dispersion exclusion zones for marine spills of liquefied natural gas (LNG), similar to Department of Transportation regulations for such spills on land.

Five senators joined Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) last Tuesday in asking the White House to increase, rather than reduce, the funding for domestic oil and natural gas research and development (R&D) in its upcoming fiscal year 2006 budget request. They also urged the Bush administration not to cut funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) onshore oil and gas management activities.