Branch

After prolonged gestation as a technical research project, coalbed methane is being born as a new branch of Canadian natural gas production this year with expectations that it will grow rapidly.

Private U.S. pipeline operators and a branch of Mexico’s state-owned energy company, Pemex, have been quietly examining the possibility of a new natural gas pipeline from New Mexico’s San Juan Basin to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, TX, according to a Houston-based energy consultant who closely monitors Mexican energy developments. The New Mexico pipeline concept is a more recent offshoot of earlier proposals for a new line from West Texas.

Private U. S. pipeline operators and a branch of Mexico’s state-owned energy company, PEMEX, have been quietly examining the possibility of a new natural gas pipeline from New Mexico’s San Juan Basin to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, TX, according to a Houston-based energy consultant who closely monitors Mexican energy developments. The New Mexico pipeline concept is a more recent offshoot of earlier proposals for a new line from West Texas.

Although clearly an attempt by FERC to extend an olive branch to states and regions miffed by certain elements of the federal agency’s pending standard market design (SMD) proposal, the head of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) last Tuesday said that an SMD white paper recently unveiled by FERC doesn’t go far enough in meeting state concerns over retail electric jurisdictional issues.

The semi-independent consumer advocacy branch of the California Public Utilities CommissionThursday asked the energy regulators to deny San Diego Gas and Electric $98 million in revenues as a penalty for the utility’s alleged failure to purchase power supplies on a fixed-price, forward contracts basis between July 1, 1999 and Aug. 31, 2000. Most ofwhat the CPUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) concludes were missed opportunities occurred last summer when wholesale power prices first skyrocketed in the West.

With an extra boost from the industry’s newest branch offshoreof Nova Scotia, Canadian natural gas exporters chalked up their13th consecutive annual record during the contract year that endedlast Oct. 31.

With an extra boost from the industry’s newest branch offshoreof Nova Scotia, Canadian natural gas exporters chalked up their13th consecutive annual record during the contract year that endedlast Oct. 31.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the giant San Francisco, CA-basedutility branch of PG&E Corp., acknowledged Tuesday that it isin danger of running short of gas supplies later this winter due tothe venerable utility’s electricity-induced credit woes spillingover to its natural gas operations. “Most” of the company’s 30 to40 interstate gas suppliers are refusing to sell to the giantutility beyond existing contract terms, some of which expire withina few weeks, according to a PG&E utility spokesperson.

FERC Chairman James Hoecker extended an olive branch to theboard of trustees of the North American Electric ReliabilityCouncil (NERC) during a recent visit to Canada, urging the counciland the Commission to work more cooperatively toward a common goal— ensuring the reliability of the bulk electric market.