Board

The board of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) may address the issue of coordinating U.S. natural gas and electricity grids at its next national meeting, according to the head of the natural gas committee.

The board of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) is slated to consider a resolution addressing the issue of coordinating U.S. natural gas and electricity grids at its next national meeting.

Two weeks after a newly formed state oil and gas board met to begin deliberating North Carolina’s regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), an environmental group has released a report of what it says are wide-ranging negative ramifications of the practice.

Two weeks after a newly formed state oil and gas board met to begin deliberating North Carolina’s regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), an environmental group has released a report of what it says are wide-ranging negative ramifications of the practice.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it has fulfilled four of the 12 safety recommendations outlined by the National Transportation Safety Board following the natural gas transmission pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, CA, two years ago. The San Francisco-based combination utility said it expects to satisfy two more recommendations in early 2013, which include validating maximum allowable operating pressures (MAOP) for all transmission pipelines. Recommendations completed include an emergency response procedure, 911 notifications from the utility’s gas control room, toxicological tests for employees involved in major incidents, and updating the utility record keeping system that tracks the MAOP for critical pipeline segments.

Gulf Coast petrochemicals maker TPC Group Inc. on Monday agreed to be taken private by First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners in a cash-and-debt transaction valued at $850 million.

Natural gas cash values declined nearly across the board as physical gas traders used the screen’s prior-day drop for inspiration. Most points declined by a nickel or less and traders and analysts alike are having trouble pointing to any sort of rebound in the immediate future. Even what appeared to be a bullish storage injection report Thursday wasn’t what it seemed according to one NGI source. September futures traveled an up and down course on Thursday but ultimately closed the day’s regular session at $2.724, down 2.4 cents from Wednesday’s close.

In Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Zoning Hearing Board will announce a decision on whether to allow a proposal by a midstream subsidiary of UGI Corp. to move forward at its next meeting on Sept. 4. UGI Energy Services Inc. wants to construct 27.4 miles of pipeline across Wyoming and Luzerne counties (see Shale Daily, Aug. 7). The balance of the project, 23.4 miles, would be a 24-inch diameter pipeline starting at the current terminus of UGI’s Auburn Pipeline in Wyoming and running southeast into Luzerne, with a new interconnection with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) at West Wyoming Borough. The proposed compressor station would have three units with about 200,000 Dth/d of capacity. UGI also proposes to build four miles of 12-inch diameter pipeline, which would run south from the Transco interconnect and enter the city of Wilkes-Barre, where it would connect to the natural gas distribution system operated by UGI Utilities Inc., another subsidiary.

August natural gas bidweek prices saw stout gains across the board except for a handful of Marcellus Shale trading points as NGI’s National Spot Gas Average came in 28 cents higher than the previous month at $3.00/MMBtu, according to Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI), which has unveiled a number of new market pricing locations with its latest monthly price survey.