Behind

Natural gas storage operators aren’t being left behind as theindustry prepares for rapid gas demand growth. NGI’s new survey andmap of North America’s gas storage operations shows new storagefields and expansions cropping up all over the continent, andaccording to a new study by the Gas Research Institute this is onlythe beginning of what will be needed as gas demand grows beyond 30Tcf/year.

Storage operators aren’t being left behind as the industryprepares for rapid gas demand growth. NGI’s new survey and map ofNorth America’s gas storage operations shows new storage fields andexpansions cropping up all over the continent, and according to anew study by the Gas Research Institute, this is only the beginningof what will be needed as gas demand grows beyond 30 Tcf/year.

It may be time for all the critics of the proposed Independence,MarketLink and Millennium expansions to pipe down. Gasdeliverability to the Northeast clearly is not as rosy as manyindustry experts once thought as illustrated by the record high gasprices last week during a period of extreme cold.

A host of Wisconsin businesses, labor unions and state and localgovernment officials have rallied behind the proposed GuardianPipeline as their last, best hope of injecting natural gascompetition into the state. The coalition, which includes GovernorTommy Thompson, said the proposed 147-mile, $230 million interstatepipeline can create competition with ANR Pipeline, resulting inlower energy prices for consumers and increased reliability.

BP Amoco is starting a quiet, behind-the-scenes campaign aimedat bringing pipeline rate-setting out of the realm of the archaic,making it current and market-responsive by building in annualre-calculations to adjust return on equity.

BP Amoco is starting a quiet, behind-the-scenes campaign aimedat bringing pipeline rate-setting out of the realm of the archaic,making it current and market-responsive by building in annualre-calculations to adjust return on equity.

Vector Energy Corp., created just over a year ago through oiland gas asset acquisitions, is leaving drill bits behind in favorof dot-coms and ISPs. “Nobody cares about oil and gas,” said VectorFounder and President Sam Skipper. Over the next several yearsVector will be either divesting its oil and gas properties ormerging them into another company, he said. Meanwhile it’s headingfor Internet territory, with a letter of intent to acquire onepublicly-held Internet Service Provider (ISP) and promises of anagreement with another with 8,000 subscribers.

Generation is out and distribution is in. At least that’s the thinking behind last week’s announcement that Energy East, the parent company of Upstate New York’s combination utility New York State Electric & Gas will buy CMP Group, parent of Maine’s largest electric utility, Central Maine Power, for $1.2 billion in cash and debt.

FERC is not doing its job if it hides behind the letter of thelaw and refuses to recognize abuses of market power merely becausethe abusers are staying within the bounds of maximum lawful rates.That was the decision on April 9 of the D.C. Court of Appeals,which found an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ina case involving rates charged by Southern California Gas”arbitrary and capricious.” (Southern California Edison v. FERC,No. 97-1699). Now Exxon Co. U.S.A. has asked FERC to reopen a caseinvolving Dynegy’s long-term leasing of unsubscribed capacity on ElPaso Natural Gas (RP97-287-010), saying the two cases are directlyrelated.