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BP America Production Co. and affiliate BP Energy Co. have asked FERC to resolve what they believe is an “inconsistency” in an Oct. 31 stipulation and consent agreement negotiated with Transwestern Pipeline, which bars the pipeline from recovering a $550 million loan that it secured to help bail out its parent, Enron Corp., just weeks before it filed for bankruptcy last December.

El Paso Corp. and Duke Energy will be the “clear, immediate winners” as energy traders scramble for their survival on Wall Street, but embattled Williams and Dynegy will be a “jumpball because of the liquidity trap they have gotten themselves into,” says energy industry analyst John Olson of Houston-based Sanders Morris Harris.

El Paso Corp. and Duke Energy will be the “clear, immediate winners” as energy traders scramble for their survival on Wall Street, but embattled Williams and Dynegy will be a “jumpball because of the liquidity trap they have gotten themselves into,” says energy industry analyst John Olson of Houston-based Sanders Morris Harris.

FERC Commissioner Nora Brownell made it clear last week that as the Commission continues with a series of probes into possible chicanery in U.S. energy markets, including the execution of dubious trading practices and manipulation of wholesale energy prices, the federal agency will not “bow to the pressure” being exerted on it to “rush to judgment” and quickly wrap up its work.

To energy analyst Marshall Adkins of Raymond James, it is becoming clear that the United States is facing a “major natural gas supply problem that is likely to lead to higher gas prices over the summer and a potential gas price explosion next winter.” Adkins, who last month had predicted a bullish first quarter sequential decline of 2% and year-over-year decline of 3%, said last week that not only is U.S. gas production falling faster than analysts first thought, but “the supply deterioration has been shocking even to us.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a formal order last week initiating a fact-finding investigation into possible manipulation of short-term prices for natural gas and electricity in West Coast markets. The agency’s action was sparked by the Enron Corp. financial debacle, Chairman Pat Wood said, and was a follow-up to his pledge before a congressional committee more than two weeks ago (see NGI, Feb. 4).

The roller coaster ride of natural gas prices over the past year and a half is clear evidence of a market in need of federal repair, Apache Corp. said last week, adding that an Enron-Dynegy merger would exacerbate the existing market malfunction.

With the blustery days of winter not all that far off, FERC chairman Pat Wood last Friday made it clear that he will keep a watchful eye on how energy markets in the Pacific Northwest progress over the coming months, since that part of the country has a winter peaking system bolstered by hydro-electric power and has seen precipitation fall off dramatically.

Several western governors are making clear their opposition to proposals that would give FERC unfettered authority to set and enforce electric reliability standards. The governors, in a Sept. 6 letter to Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Frank Murkowski (R-AK), argued that the Commission does not have the expertise, resources or local knowledge to successfully execute such duties.