Border

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Friday approved for public comment proposed interpretive guidance regarding the cross-border application of the swaps provisions of portions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and the Commission’s regulations.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration is reportedly working on a plan to allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in five counties along the Pennsylvania border in the Marcellus Shale, but only in localities that support the practice.

El Paso Natural Gas Co. has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to increase the export capacity of the Samalayuca border-crossing line in El Paso County, TX, to 544,500 Mcf/d from 308,000 Mcf/d. El Paso is seeking modification of its existing presidential permit to allow for additional natural gas flows into Mexico for existing El Paso customers on an interruptible basis, an El Paso spokesman said. MGI Supply Ltd., a subsidiary of Pemex Gas y Petroquimica Basica, which supplies natural gas to Pemex, recently approached El Paso requesting an immediate increase in natural gas export capacity for shippers from the U.S. to meet earlier than anticipated load growth in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. El Paso has determined that the 21-mile, 24-inch diameter Samalayuca line is physically capable of flowing a maximum of 544,500 Mcf/d without adding new facilities to the existing upstream facilities.

Tolls will stay the same on TransCanada Corp.’s troubled natural gas Mainline linking Alberta to Ontario, Quebec and border crossings into the United States until a prolonged rate case sorts out its future.

Tolls will stay the same on TransCanada Corp.’s troubled natural gas Mainline linking Alberta to Ontario, Quebec and border crossings into the United States until a prolonged rate case sorts out its future.

Predictions of moderate temperatures in most areas — except for freezing lows in much of Canada, just on the other side of the border and occasionally in sections of the Rockies — along with the additional loss of industrial load associated with a holiday weekend and fulfilled anticipation of continued storage injections prompted sizeable cash market declines across the board Sunday.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) said Monday part of its transmission pipeline picking up Southwest supplies at the California-Arizona border failed a hydrostatic test earlier in the day. Crews were working to replace a one-mile segment of Line 300 B in a remote part of Bakersfield, CA, in the southern central valley region.

Other than some frigid conditions in the western half of Canada and along some parts of the northern U.S. border, the cash market had little in the near term on which to hang a hatful of higher prices Monday. The return of industrial load from a weekend off was about the only immediate minor offset to generally cool to moderate temperatures in most areas.

Voters in New York still support natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale by a thin margin, 45-41%, because they believe the economic benefits outweigh environmental concerns, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.