Cleaning

Everyone involved in shale gas development needs to do a better job, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) subcommittee on shale gas production said in its final report.

Subfreezing lows will be left in the wake of an icy coastal storm moving out to sea, but Northeast residents will no doubt welcome the chance to finish cleaning up in relatively dry conditions after the devastating blizzards in the middle of last week. Thus Northeast citygates took nearly all of Tuesday’s price hits ranging from about 40 cents to the $1.50 area (the Florida citygate chipped in with a loss of about a nickel).

In formally tapping Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) for secretary of the Interior Department, President-elect Obama last Wednesday gave him the tough assignment of cleaning up the troubled agency whose image has been scarred by scandal during the past year. Salazar was the last pick to round out Obama’s energy and environmental team. Obama also moved quickly last week to unveil his financial regulatory team, selecting Gary Gensler, former undersecretary of the Treasury and partner at Goldman Sachs, as his nominee for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

In formally tapping Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) for secretary of the Interior Department, President-elect Obama Wednesday gave him the tough assignment of cleaning up the troubled agency whose image has been scarred by scandal during the past year.

Vector Pipeline said for Wednesday deliveries would be restricted to 640,000 Dth/d at Dawn and zero at Courtright until the pipeline is able to run a cleaning pig. Excluding the St. Clair delivery point, this restriction does not impact receipts and/or deliveries at any other locations on the Vector U.S. system.

While convincing and collecting thousands of power supply customers over the last two years as other power marketers exited the business, Constellation Energy is still struggling to impress the ratings agencies, which appear to be operating on the principle that “all trading is bad” and no participant in the deregulated market deserves an “A” rating.

Transwestern is conducting turbine meter cleaning and inspections on its San Juan Lateral. The work will limit New Mexico measurement points PNM/Blanco and TransColorado to maximum flows of 100,000 MMBtu/d each Thursday and WFS Kutz to 54,000 MMBtu/d Friday. Flow at Colorado measurement points will be limited to 200,000 MMBtu/d each at Northwest Pipeline Monday and at WFS Ignacio Tuesday.

Projecting linepack above its target levels, Pacific Gas &Electric issued a customer-specific OFO for today.

El Paso said it would complete cleaning of Line 1103 on itsSouth Mainline Friday, and will conduct its smart pigging projecttoday, Wednesday and Thursday. The reduction in capacity fromKeystone Station to Pecos River Station will be only 100 MMcf/dtoday, but will rise Wednesday and Thursday to the previouslyannounced 335 MMcf/d (see Daily GPI, March 15). Maintenance atCornudas B and Hueco will continue during this time, El Paso said,causing varying day-by-day allocations in Pecos and Waha Westcapacity. See the bulletin board for details.