Calls

As reports and rumors continue to swirl surrounding news of Amaranth Advisors LLC’s significant losses last week, calls for better regulation continue to come in while trading exchanges attempt to assure the public that they were not adversely impacted. The Greenwich, CT-based hedge fund revealed last week that bad bets in natural gas futures have cost the company about 65% of its $9.5 billion asset value (see Daily GPI, Sept. 22; Sept. 25).

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) has introduced a $40 billion sweeping energy bill that, among other things, calls for the Interior Department to open additional acreage in Lease Sale 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for oil and natural gas drilling.

Six Gulf Coast senators have introduced a bipartisan measure that calls for the federal government and the coastal states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to equally share the oil and natural gas revenues generated from additional leasing in the gas-rich area known as Lease Sale 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday on legislation that calls on the secretary of the Department of Interior to open up closed parts of the area known as Lease 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to expanded leasing for oil and natural gas drilling.

Comments are being sought on an energy industry petition that calls on FERC to initiate a rulemaking to make a series of permanent regulatory and policy changes aimed at spurring the construction of interstate natural gas pipeline expansions, new storage capacity and takeaway facilities related to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects. The agency’s action is procedurally somewhat unusual, given that FERC is seeking comments ahead of its decision on whether to conduct the requested rulemaking proceeding.

Comments are being sought on an energy industry petition that calls on FERC to initiate a rulemaking to make a series of permanent regulatory and policy changes aimed at spurring the construction of interstate natural gas pipeline expansions, new storage capacity and takeaway facilities related to liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects. The agency’s action is procedurally somewhat unusual, given that FERC is seeking comments ahead of its decision on whether to conduct the requested rulemaking proceeding

FERC staff on Friday issued a favorable initial environmental review of Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG LP proposal that calls for the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and associated facilities in Port Arthur, TX, to import and deliver up to 1.5 Bcf/d of supplies, which would be later expanded to 3 Bcf/d.

A group of state legislators from around the Southeast adopted a proposal earlier this week that calls for expeditious consideration by state and the federal regulators of applications to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals.

And the heat just keeps on coming, according to the latest forecast released by Andover, MA-based WSI Corp., which calls for a warmer than normal August for the entire U.S., but a cooler than normal Northeast in September and October.