Building

The new merchant gas and power companies, getting battered in the public arena as they move into new operating areas across the country, are going to have to heavy-up their public relations operations to ward off reactive laws and regulations restricting the competitive market.

The new merchant gas and power companies, getting battered in the public arena as they move into new operating areas across the country, are going to have to heavy-up their public relations operations to ward off reactive laws and regulations restricting the competitive market.

Marathon Oil Co. on Thursday proposed building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification and power generation complex near Tijuana in Baja California with project partners Pertamina, Golar LNG Ltd. and Grupo GGS S.A. de C.V. The complex, which would be developed on the Pacific coast south of Tijuana, has a proposed start-up of 2005, with capacity to regasify up to 750 MMcf/d for regional use as well as export to Southern California. A 400 MW gas-fired power plant also would be constructed on the site.

Marathon Oil Co. on Thursday proposed building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification and power generation complex near Tijuana in Baja California with project partners Pertamina, Golar LNG Ltd. and Grupo GGS S.A. de C.V. The complex, which would be developed on the Pacific coast south of Tijuana, has a proposed start-up of 2005, with capacity to regasify up to 750 MMcf/d for regional use as well as export to Southern California. A 400 MW gas-fired power plant also would be constructed on the site.

Building on a series of midstream asset purchases, Enbridge Inc. has agreed to buy gas gathering and processing facilities in northeastern Texas from Sulphur River Gathering LP for US$178 million. The Sulphur River facilities, which currently gather 210 MMcf/d, are contiguous with assets in East Texas recently acquired by Enbridge Energy Partners from Koch Midstream Services for $230.5 million (see NGI, Oct. 29, 2001 ). The Sulphur River acquisition increases the portfolio of assets available to Enbridge for potential sale to the limited partnership in 2002.

Building on a series of midstream asset purchases, Enbridge Inc. has agreed to buy gas gathering and processing facilities in northeastern Texas from Sulphur River Gathering LP for US$178 million. The Sulphur River facilities, which currently gather 210 MMcf/d, are contiguous with assets in East Texas recently acquired by Enbridge Energy Partners from Koch Midstream Services for $230.5 million (see Daily GPI, Oct. 26, 2001). The Sulphur River acquisition increases the portfolio of assets available to Enbridge for potential sale to the limited partnership in 2002.

Building on its efforts to move away from a hub-and-spoke approach in determining market power, FERC last week lifted the curtain on a new interim power generation market screen to be used in analyzing market-based rates, and found three utilities, Entergy, Southern Co., and AEP, that didn’t pass the test.

Primarily building on upward momentum from the day before and an initially higher screen, the cash market continued to push higher Wednesday with gains that were mostly within a few cents on either side of 20 cents but tended to be greater in the Rockies.

PPL Corp. was lighting the peace candle on the west side of its 22-story headquarters building in Allentown, PA, Thursday night and continuing through the weekend “as a symbol of the light that the American spirit can bring to even the darkest circumstances.” The commemorative gesture, and an accompanying donation, was just one of the many donations and supportive messages from energy companies in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States Sept. 11, 2001.