Chris

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has reappointed Philip Jones to a second six-year term on the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC). The appointment requires state Senate confirmation, and would run through Jan. 1, 2017. Gregoire originally named Jones, 57, to the UTC in 2005. Jones is active in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), serving on the board of directors and the NARUC executive committee as second vice president, along with the international relations and telecommunications committees. Jones also is active on the NARUC Washington (DC) Action Committee and board chair for the National Regulatory Research Institute. Jones was a former senior executive with Cutter & Buck (Europe) BV in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for five years and prior to that was a senior legislative aide to former U.S. Sen. Daniel Evans (R-WA). Jones is a 1977 graduate of Harvard, with honors.

Despite the current surplus of gas in storage and some predictions that working gas levels could end the injection season at maximum capacity near 3.7 Tcf, Chris McGill, managing director of policy analysis at the American Gas Association (AGA), warned gas buyers not to bet on it.

Despite the current surplus of gas in storage and some predictions that working gas levels could end the injection season at maximum capacity near 3.7 Tcf, Chris McGill, managing director of policy analysis at the American Gas Association (AGA), warned gas buyers not to bet on it.

As one time Tropical Storm Chris weakened to a tropical depression on Friday, the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was dealt an additional blow the day before as respected hurricane forecasters William Gray and Philip Klotzbach of the Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane forecast team issued a report reducing the number of storms expected in the basin this season.

As Tropical Storm Chris continued to weaken just north of Puerto Rico (see related story), the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was dealt an additional blow Thursday morning as respected hurricane forecasters William Gray and Philip Klotzbach of the Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane forecast team issued a report reducing the number of storms expected in the basin this season.

Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Chris Dodd of Connecticut have added their names to the expanding list of Democrats calling for Congress to impose a windfall profits tax on major oil companies.

ConocoPhillips has appointed Chris Conway as president of ConocoPhillips Gas and Power. He replaces J. Mike Stice, who was recently named president of ConocoPhillips Qatar. Conway joined the company 23 years ago and was most recently general manager of ConocoPhillips’ Americas crude supply and trading operations. He has also served as manager of the company’s specialty products unit and manager of strategy and business development for European refining and marketing. Stice, who was president of ConocoPhillips Gas and Power for five years, will lead all aspects of the company’s Qatar liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, including the upstream and shipping aspects. In July, Qatar Petroleum and ConocoPhillips announced the signing of a Heads of Agreement for the development of Qatargas 3, a large-scale LNG project located in Qatar to service the U.S. natural gas market.

The jolting daily cash price increases, record Gulf Coast and Midcontinent prices and new gas futures highs last week probably gave some market monitors heart palpitations and raised the ire of industry critics, but so far the blame for the events has been placed on a long series of fundamental factors triggered by Mother Nature.

Alberta Energy’s Wild Goose Storage subsidiary in California is considering a major expansion that could nearly triple the size of its natural gas storage facility in Butte County, near Gridley, CA. The company has launched an open season for customer sign-ups that will run until May 22.