Award

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last Wednesday signed House Bill 3001, authorizing the state to award a license allowing TransCanada Alaska to start developing a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline from a treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay to the Alberta Hub in Canada.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Wednesday signed House Bill 3001, authorizing the state to award a license allowing TransCanada Alaska to start developing a 1,715-mile natural gas pipeline from a treatment plant at Prudhoe Bay to the Alberta Hub in Canada.

NiSource Inc. has lost an attempt to overturn a $270 million punitive damage award that tops off $134 million in compensatory damages for underpayment of royalties in West Virginia, but the company vows it will fight on. A Roane County, WV judge last Thursday ruled against a motion to set aside the punitive damages portion of the jury verdict that was issued early this year (see NGI, Feb 5).

NiSource Inc. has lost an attempt to overturn a $270 million punitive damage award that tops off $134 million in compensatory damages for underpayment of royalties in West Virginia, but the company vows it will fight on. A Roane County, WV judge Thursday ruled against a motion to set aside the punitive damages portion of the jury verdict that was issued in January (see Daily GPI, Jan. 30).

Pipeline/storage providers and certain large shippers believe an industry petition to award blanket certificate authorization to natural gas projects that traditionally have not been afforded such treatment — mainline pipeline expansions, new storage capacity and facilities related to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects — has merit and that FERC should move forward with it. But some customers, such as municipal gas utilities, have called on FERC to reject the proposal.

The owners of the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP), off Nova Scotia, announced Monday the awarding of contracts for Tier 2, or second phase, of the project that is expected to produce a total in excess of 600 MMcf/d and 24 thousand bbl/d of liquids by 2003 when both tiers are up and running, according to estimates by part-owner ExxonMobil. Current production averages 550 MMcf/d of sales gas and 20,000 bbl of natural gas liquids.

Four natural gas trade groups have called on Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to award one federal agency primary responsibility over the security of the nation’s energy infrastructure.

Pipeline construction to tap North Slope natural gas in Alaska continues to inch along toward fruition as the major North Slope gas producers (BP, Phillips, and ExxonMobil) announced that the last four in a series of 10 contracts have been awarded to assess the feasibility of constructing a system to deliver gas from the North Slope to Canada and the Lower 48 states.

Sempra Energy Chairman and CEO Stephen Baum has called on stateregulators to award electric generation greater priority in theinterruptible queue so its gas supply won’t be among the first tobe cut off during extreme cold-spells and in emergency situations.