Building

Tulsa-based Williams has launched a bold campaign to become a leader in building out North America’s natural gas infrastructure, CEO Alan Armstrong said Tuesday.

PacifiCorp proposes to nearly cut in half the proportion of its electricity that comes from coal-fired generators, along with building a new 637 MW natural gas-fired plant in Utah during the next 10 years, according to a revised integrated resource plan (IRP) submitted to Idaho regulators by the company’s Rocky Mountain Power utility. The Idaho Public Utilities Commission will take comments on the IRP, including its plan to cut reliance on coal from its current 62.5% portion of the PacifiCorp portfolio to 36.3% by 2020. For gas-fired generation, the 637 MW Lake Side generation plant is planned to be in place in Utah County by mid-2014, and bids for another gas-fired plant are called for late this year for a facility that can be online in 2016. Over the next 10 years, the proportion of generation from natural gas is expected to increase to 25.5% from its current 11.7% level.

Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) is considering new rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) activities in the state and has scheduled a public hearing on proposed rules for June 15.

El Paso Corp.’s natural gas pipeline franchise is expected to be front and center in building new infrastructure to accommodate growing North American gas demand in the coming decades, executives said last week.

El Paso Corp.’s natural gas pipeline franchise is expected to be front and center in building new infrastructure to accommodate growing gas demand in the coming decades, executives said Tuesday.

FERC has approved Trunkline Gas Co. LLC’s proposal to modify a portion of its existing South Texas System to allow the bidirectional transportation of liquids-rich natural gas from the Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas.

In today’s depressed natural gas and power markets, any hopes of a solar building boom have been dashed as evidenced by the latest moves at Edison International’s utility. Southern California Edison (SCE) has decided to cut its utility investment in rooftop solar systems in half, according to the parent company CEO Ted Craver, speaking on a conference call Monday in which Edison reported increased profits year over year and flat results for the fourth quarter last year.

Building and operating upstream natural gas and oil facilities regained upward momentum in the past six months after falling in 2009, according to cost indexes developed by IHS.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. Friday said it is building its stakes in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales in two transactions valued at about $3.2 billion.