Concluded

New Orleans-based Energy Partners Ltd. announced Monday that it has concluded a process during which it solicited bids to buy the company, but it did not receive a definitive offer.

Arcadia Gas Storage LLC (AGS) concluded its nonbinding open season for salt cavern gas storage capacity in Bienville Parish in North Louisiana. Project backer Martin Resource Management Corp. (MRMC) of Kilgore, TX, said Wednesday that interest exceeds project capacity.

As the legal community discussed the court-related impact of Kenneth Lay’s death early Wednesday, a preliminary autopsy on the Enron founder concluded that clogged arteries were the cause of death. Prevailing legal opinion is that his death will wipe Lay’s slate clean in the eyes of the law. History will determine the rest.

Sempra Energy’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit reported Monday that its just concluded nonbinding open season for a proposed expansion of the Costa Azul receiving terminal along the North Baja Pacific Coast in Mexico drew strong interest equivalent to 2.9 Bcf/d, more than double the scope of the proposed expansion. The open season that ran for four weeks closed last Friday.

Delivery of gas sold in the largest Minerals Management Service (MMS) royalty in kind (RIK) gas sale to date began April 1. The sale, which concluded in mid-March, provided approximately 118 Bcf of RIK gas to be delivered over seven- or 12-month terms. Gas is being delivered to 14 offshore pipelines originating in the Gulf of Mexico. The amount is equivalent to 509,800 MMBtu/d. Nine companies are buying the gas.

The Department of Energy has concluded that creating a natural gas reserve similar to what has been done with petroleum would be “problematic” because of the substantial number of privately owned gas storage fields already in operation throughout the country, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said during a media breakfast presentation hosted by Energy Daily.

Over the objection of major producers and other parties, a FERC administrative law judge Tuesday concluded that Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America’s (NGPL) proposed hydrocarbon dew point (HDP) safe harbor of 15 degrees Fahrenheit is “just and reasonable.”

The Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour has concluded that a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, proposed for construction at the Point Tupper/Bear Head Industrial Park on the Strait of Canso, is not likely to cause significant adverse effects on the environment. The approval was a key step forward for Access Northeast Energy Inc., which wants commercial operations to begin by November 2007 (see Daily GPI, March 12).

Alberta regulators concluded last week that they must force the shut in of about 123 MMcf/d of natural gas production in the Athabasca Oil Sands Area on July 1. The total is about half what the regulators originally estimated was needed in order to preserve future recovery of bitumen from an oil sands region in northeastern Alberta.