Columbia

BC Gas Utility has applied to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for a rate increase that will add approximately 16% to the typical residential customer’s total gas bill, about 6% less than the wholesale cost the distributor believes it may have to pay over the next 12 months.

New energy legislation introduced in British Columbia is expected to save money and improve services for the province’s industry and customers, Energy and Mines Minister Richard Neufeld said Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last Thursday turned aside an emergency stay request filed by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that would have delayed the implementation of a standard market design (SMD) in New England, which is set to go into effect this month.

Columbia Gas (TCO) cited a force majeure situation at the Chesapeake LNG plant in saying shippers under Rate Schedules X-131, X-132 and X-133 will be entitled to flow on a daily basis only one-fourth of their Liquefaction Demand volumes. The restriction began Thursday and will remain in effect until the situation is remedied, TCO said. It also issued an OFO to shippers under the FSS rate schedule that also have FT capacity and to NTS rate schedule customers. The OFO will become effective at 10 a.m. EST Sunday. TCO said the order was issued to preserve the integrity of its storage fields and operating performance, and to maintain its ability to provide no-notice service. See the bulletin board for details of OFO compliance.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday overturned and remanded a FERC decision which prohibited allocation of interruptible capacity on PG&E Gas Transmission, Northwest based on the total revenue deriving from a bid, saying the Commission failed to explain why it was departing from its own precedents.

A sustained increase of at least 50% — and possibly more — is on the horizon for exports of natural gas from British Columbia to the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, Westcoast Energy told Canada’s National Energy Board in support of an application for an initial 10%, C$270-million (US$170-million) expansion of its B.C. pipeline system’s capacity by 200 MMcf/d to 2.1 Bcf/d.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld FERC’s decision in the Sea Robin Pipeline case, in which the Commission reformulated its test for determining whether a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico is a nonjurisdictional gathering line or a jurisdictional transmission system. ExxonMobil Gas Marketing had filed an appeal of FERC’s determination that a portion of the 438-mile, 1.3 Bcf/d Sea Robin Pipeline system upstream of the Vermilion 149 station is nonjurisdictional gathering.

A potentially significant natural gas discovery in the foothills of British Columbia, which may hold more than 1 Tcf of reserves, was announced by Talisman Energy Canada on Thursday. The new play, said Talisman, would be the first commercial well to produce from the deeper, underexplored Paleozoic reservoirs in the Monkman area. Expected to be on production by September, the well tested at rates ranging from 15 MMcf/d to 37 MMcf/d, with a flowing tubing pressure of 2,364 pounds per square inch, directly into existing Monkman pipeline infrastructure. A delineation well now is planned for the fourth quarter, and more locations would be scheduled next year.

A potentially significant natural gas discovery in the foothills of British Columbia, which may hold more than 1 Tcf of reserves, was announced by Talisman Energy Canada on Thursday. The new play, said Talisman, would be the first commercial well to produce from the deeper, underexplored Paleozoic reservoirs in the Monkman area. Expected to be on production by September, the well tested at rates ranging from 15 MMcf/d to 37 MMcf/d, with a flowing tubing pressure of 2,364 pounds per square inch, directly into existing Monkman pipeline infrastructure. A delineation well now is planned for the fourth quarter, and more locations would be scheduled next year.