As the list of planned new natural gas-fired power plants inCalifornia lengthens, state officials have begun to survey thedeliverability of resources to fuel those plants.
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Transportation Notes
Pacific Gas & Electric continued a low-inventory OFO begunWednesday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 25)through today with no change in imbalance tolerance orpenalties. PG&E extended a projection of below-target linepacklevels through Saturday.
Yankee Makes Customer Service Upgrade
Yankee Gas Services Co. inaugurated its new customer and billingservice this week, completing a process begun in collaboration withIBM two years ago. Yankee said the system will enhance customerservice, improve efficiency and is Y2K ready. The company would notrelease the cost of the new system.
Transportation Notes
Pacific Gas & Electric extended a high-inventory Stage 1 OFObegun Friday (see Daily GPI, July 9)through Saturday but loosened the tolerance for positive dailyimbalances from 5% to 21%. Above-target linepack was projectedthrough today. PG&E’s neighbor to the south, Southern CaliforniaGas, declared a similar Overnominations Day for Saturday but had a 10%imbalance tolerance.
Producers Put Up Big Dollars for New Nova Scotia Exploration
Producers put up healthy exploration budgets to show natural gasdevelopment has only begun on Canada’s East Coast with the SableOffshore Energy Project and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline. Ahighly successful auction of drilling prospects offshore of NovaScotia also confirmed faith in the region that the merger of ExxonCorp. and Mobil Corp. will not cause a contraction of the buddingeastern Canadian gas industry.
Futures Stabilize After 3-Day Price Rout
Despite warming temperatures that already had begun the processof melting snows from Monday’s Nor’easter, the futures market wasable to arrest a further meltdown of its own Tuesday as buyers andsellers were evenly matched. In fact, Tuesday’s price action was soorderly, that not only did the market etch an inside day with highsand lows within Monday’s, but also posted an identical $1.717settlement price. And although some bulls were somewhat reluctantto claim the day as a victory, others viewed the market’s abilityto hold ground following the 25-cent price slide since lastWednesday as promising.
Thunder Creek Construction Under Way
Thunder Creek Gas Services LLC, a joint venture of Devon EnergyCorp. and KN Energy, has begun construction of a 126-mile gasgathering system in the Powder River Basin of northeast Wyoming.The system is expected to be operational by fall at a total cost ofabout $100 million.
U.S. Attorney’s Office Probes NGSA Scandal
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. has begun toexplore the possibility of criminal action in the case involvingNicholas J. Bush, former president of the Natural Gas SupplyAssociation (NGSA), who was relieved of his duties two weeks ago inthe wake of allegations that he defrauded the trade group of morethan $2.4 million over a 12-year period. NGSA made the allegationsin a lawsuit it filed two weeks ago.
Oil Dominance Wanes; Clean Gas Takes the Lead
The energy industry has begun the “last days of the age of oil,”with a cast of cleaner fuels waiting to take center stage,according to ARCO CEO Mike R. Bowlin.
Oil Dominance Wanes as Clean Gas Takes the Lead
The energy industry has begun the “last days of the age of oil,”with a cast of cleaner fuels waiting to take center stage,according to ARCO CEO Mike R. Bowlin.