Completing

The Virginia Supreme Court has vacated a lower court’s temporary injunction barring producer GeoMet Inc. from completing an interconnect to attach its Appalachian Basin coal seam gas production to East Tennessee Natural Gas LLC’s Jewel Ridge lateral, the company said.

Completing a triple-play of sorts, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission Tuesday decided three separate issues for Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities — a retail natural gas rate net decrease, a retail electric rate net increase, and a 20-year purchased power agreement for up to 11.99 MW as a qualifying facility (QF) project, but at rates less than the published QF tariff. The utility will pay $58.50/MWh, rather than the PUC’s $61.60/MWh rate for most QF contracts. Avista wanted to pay $49/MWh.

El Paso reported completing a two-day San Juan Crossover maintenance project ahead of schedule early Friday. It raised crossover capacity to 415 MMcf/d effective with Cycle 3 nominations Friday (prorated for partial-day flow) and planned to increased it further to 615 MMcf/d effective with Cycle 1 nominations Saturday.

Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. on Monday upped its earnings guidance 23% for the year after completing its $1.4 billion acquisition of Remington Oil & Gas. Helix, also citing strength in its contracting services businesses, now expects earnings of $3.20-3.70/share in 2006. On May 2, the company forecast 2006 earnings of $2.70-3.30.

Devon Energy Corp. tightened its grip on the Barnett Shale on Thursday, completing its $2.2 billion acquisition of privately held Chief Holdings LLC (see Daily GPI, May 3). Devon will now be producing almost half of the overall production from the Barnett, considered the largest natural gas field in Texas.

Completing its second week of side-by-side energy trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Globex platform, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) said Friday that despite small volumes on a number of the electronically traded contracts, the company has seen growth over the two-week span along with new business that wasn’t trading in open outcry or on Nymex’s after-hours Access electronic system. Reaction from the marketplace appears encouraging (see Daily GPI, June 12).

Going out on a weak note, May natural gas futures went off the board Wednesday after completing its fifth consecutive trading day of lower settles. After notching a low of $7.000, May expired at $7.198, down 5.6 cents on the day.

Less than a month after completing its most recent expansion (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27, 2005), Eastern Shore Natural Gas Co. (ESNG), a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities Corp. serving the Delmarva Peninsula, said this week it has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting authority to construct new pipeline facilities in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Completing the third official week of winter on Wednesday, temperatures for a majority of the U.S remain anything but winter-like as warmer than normal weather continues to flood many regions of the country. The warming trend has alleviated the perceived pressure on natural gas supply as the Gulf of Mexico continues to recover from 2005’s overactive hurricane season.