Blast

As an aftereffect of the deadly San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline blast in September, gas curtailments remain a possibility for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) largest customers in San Francisco and the peninsula region to the south, but a separate electricity milestone in the Bay Area Monday has helped ease that threat.

The Sept. 9 San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline blast that killed eight people and destroyed 37 homes in a quiet suburban San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood shouldn’t have happened and should not be repeated anywhere in the future, a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) executive told NGI.

As the impact of the transmission pipeline blast in California continues to reverberate throughout the industry, Oregon officials plan to hold a limited rehearing on an earlier land-use decision for a pipeline that would serve a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The blast of frigid cold into the Northeast over the last few weeks culminated in new natural gas and electric usage records in Con Edison’s New York City centralized service area.

Despite two preceding days of futures softness and some tardiness in the current blast of cold weather reaching the Northeast and parts of the South, the cash market found enough heating load in the late-week forecasts to raise prices at virtually all points Wednesday.

The latest blast of winter cold in much of the East is proving to be short-lived, and so are the two days of price firmness that it caused. Numbers dropped at nearly all points Thursday as a warming trend was forecast for the Midwest and cold temperatures were due to ease slightly in the Northeast. While colder conditions would continue spreading in the South Friday, they weren’t enough to offset the decline of heating load in more northerly climes.

The cash market was showing more signs of weakness Wednesday as the latest blast of arctic cold was forecast to be receding in some regions. Many points in the Midcontinent and West that had been rising Tuesday were falling Wednesday by substantial amounts, and in many cases the remaining gains were considerably smaller than on the day before.

Falling cash prices at nearly all points Thursday reflected the fact that the latest blast of cold weather is starting to wane, although forecasts of Friday lows around freezing were still common in northern market areas and extended as far south as Atlanta.

No severe late-season blast of winter is due, but temperatures are dipping low enough in northern market areas to give a boost to recently flagging heating load for gas. The cash market responded with moderate increases at nearly all points Wednesday.