Conceded

The Alberta production industry conceded defeat in the dispute over sour gas production around population centers. Compton Petroleum Corp. put an inconclusive finish to a six-year struggle to overcome local fear and political resistance by abandoning a hotly-contested proposal for new sour gas drilling on the southeastern boundary of the Canadian gas capital of Calgary.

In signing the 1,724-page 2005 Energy Policy Act into law on Monday as oil futures prices were hitting a new all-time high, President Bush conceded it would do little in the short term to bring down energy prices. However, the oil, gas and power industries will see immediate changes in regulation and in incentives to boost supply and reduce demand, which should in the long term lead to lower prices.

As the Senate gets ready to begin debate on an omnibus energy bill on Tuesday, a top Republican staff member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee conceded that the controversial methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) provisions could threaten the energy measure this year.

Petal Gas Storage L.L.C. ate a little crow at FERC last week. Itconceded that its original proposal for expanding thedeliverability capacity serving its storage facilities was a betterplan after all.

Petal Gas Storage L.L.C. ate a little crow at FERC last week. Itconceded that its original proposal for expanding thedeliverability capacity serving its storage facilities was a betterplan after all.

Alliance Pipeline conceded last week that its commercialin-service date will have to be delayed for the third time, thistime until the end of November, because of continued problems withdebris in the pipe and trouble getting the enormously complexcomponents of the system working in sync (see NGI, Sept. 11; Oct.23). The 1,900-mile project originally was supposed to be inservice Oct. 1.

Alliance Pipeline conceded yesterday that its commercial in-servicedate will have to be delayed for the third time, this time until theend of November, because of continued problems with debris in the pipeand trouble getting the enormously complex components of the systemworking in sync (see Daily GPI,Sept. 11; Oct. 23). The 1,900-mileproject originally was supposed to be in service Oct. 1.

Vector Pipeline sponsors finally conceded last week their $471million project will not be prepared to ship a proposed 1 Bcf/d ofgas from Chicago to Dawn, ON, in November 1999 as planned. Theproject will be able to ship some gas along a short stretch of pipeat the downstream end between MichCon’s system and the Dawn hub,but about 340 miles of the system will remain out of service untilfall of 2000, sponsors told FERC.

El Paso Natural Gas conceded Wednesday it discontinueddiscounting interruptible transportation early this year, but saidits action was primarily due to its new status as “swing supplier”of California-bound transportation – a position that it says givesit free reign to charge maximum IT rates.