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A U.S. district judge in Louisiana has set a court date of June 30 in New Orleans to hear arguments to dismiss a class action lawsuit brought last year against several major pipeline companies and producers by residents of the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit was originally filed in September 2005, alleging that the companies’ exploration and production of oil and natural gas destroyed wetlands, which contributed to the massive storm damage (see Daily GPI, Sept. 16).

In what is shaping up to be some of the most riveting testimony to date in the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, federal prosecutor John Hueston began a tense cross-examination of Lay on Wednesday, accusing the former chief of attempting to influence witnesses and breaching Enron’s code of ethics.

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.

An estimated 650 Bcf of Gulf natural gas production will have been lost — or more than twice the amount of gas lost to date (321 Bcf) since Hurricane Katrina struck in late August — by the time industry fully recovers in early 2006, FERC staff said in a market assessment of the upcoming heating season that was released Thursday. That would mean that 18% of the Gulf’s annual gas output would be lost as a result of hurricane-related damages. The agency also projected that almost 2 Bcf/d will remain shut in during the November-through-March winter period.

Newfield Exploration Co. said year-to-date, four major weather events have caused production deferrals in the Gulf of Mexico — Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita and Tropical Storm Arlene, and the full-year impact will result in the deferral of 18-20 Bcfe.

In the largest class action settlement to date in the ongoing Enron Corp. bankruptcy, the Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) proposed Tuesday to pay $2.4 billion to settle fraud claims by investors.

Shell doubled its costs estimates and pushed back the commercial service date for the Sakhalin II Phase 2 LNG project on Thursday. The company said in May that the project would cost $10 billion, but it now estimates its cost at $20 billion. LNG deliveries to the Costa Azul terminal in Baja California Norte, meanwhile, have been delayed until summer 2008 from November 2007.

Sources indicated that storage injection season is already well under way before what is usually considered its traditional start date — April 1. That demand source, along with continuing solid screen support, were cited as reasons why Thursday’s start of the April aftermarket saw even bigger price jumps in most cases than the one with which March business ended Wednesday.

El Paso Corp. officials on Thursday said the company expects to file applications later this month at FERC for two expansions of pipelines to transport natural gas production out of the Rocky Mountain region. In addition, it plans to submit an application during the second quarter for a line to deliver gas from its Elba Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Savannah, GA, to northern Florida.