Conducted

The poll, taken Dec. 14-17, was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, DC, with 625 registered voters polled. The margin of error is plus or minus 4%.

The $19.1 billion spending bill for the Interior Department and related agencies that was signed by President Bush Monday has left some offshore industry officials optimistic that the administration may consider expanded leasing in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the future.

A recent national electricity transmission study conducted by Analysis Group/Economics Inc. found that it generally would be less expensive to locate power generation closer to consumers and build natural gas pipelines when needed, than to build generation near the gas fields and transmit the power to consumers located farther away.

FERC has ordered a formal, non-public investigation to be conducted into the “apparent disclosure” to The New York Times of documents that were supposed to be sealed and protected as part of the California regulators’ complaint case against El Paso Natural Gas and affiliates.

A recent capacity auction conducted by the Natural Gas PipelineCo. of America (NGPL) was “unreasonable and unduly preferential,”FERC said last week, but it refused to overturn the auction’sresults, as was requested by producers and marketers. It gave thepipeline the benefit of the doubt on the latter point, saying thatNGPL had “followed an arguable interpretation of its tariff,” whichhad been approved by the Commission.

A recent capacity auction conducted by the Natural Gas PipelineCo. of America (NGPL) was “unreasonable and unduly preferential,”FERC said last week, but it refused to overturn the auction’sresults, as was requested by producers and marketers. It gave thepipeline the benefit of the doubt on this score, saying that NGPLhad “followed an arguable interpretation of its tariff,” which hadbeen approved by the Commission.

Producers and marketers say Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America(NGPL) conducted a capacity auction earlier this month in anillegal manner, and now are looking to FERC to overturn the resultsof the auction and to prevent the re-occurrence of the allegedviolations in the future.

Southern LNG Inc. has launched a scathing denial of theallegations that it conducted an open season in secret in order toaward to an affiliate all the teminalling capacity in its liquefiednatural gas (LNG) facilities on Elba Island in Georgia. The companyis seeking to reactivate the facilities, which have been dormantsince the early 1980s.

Southern LNG Inc. last week launched a scathing denial of theallegations that it conducted an open season in secret in order toaward to an affiliate all the teminalling capacity in its liquefiednatural gas (LNG) facilities on Elba Island in Georgia. The companyis seeking to reactivate the facilities, which have been dormantsince the early 1980s.