Dealt

A federal judge in Baltimore dealt AES Corp.’s proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal another blow last Friday, upholding Baltimore County’s zoning amendment that bans the construction of LNG facilities in certain Chesapeake Bay coastal areas.

After trading lower in the overnight session, June natural gas bulls were dealt another small blow Thursday morning as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that a healthy 87 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ended April 27. However, the horns were showing again in the afternoon as the prompt month recorded an $8 high before closing at $7.947, up 21.7 cents from Wednesday.

A major transportation constraint starting Thursday dealt a staggering blow to several Rockies points Wednesday, where some quotes dropped below $3 for the first time in more than three years. That was the weakest part of a down market in which prices fell across the board in deference to light weather-based demand, a prior-day screen drop of nearly a dime and highly bearish expectations of a big storage build last week, with some estimates approaching 100 Bcf.

As one time Tropical Storm Chris weakened to a tropical depression on Friday, the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was dealt an additional blow the day before as respected hurricane forecasters William Gray and Philip Klotzbach of the Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane forecast team issued a report reducing the number of storms expected in the basin this season.

As Tropical Storm Chris continued to weaken just north of Puerto Rico (see related story), the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was dealt an additional blow Thursday morning as respected hurricane forecasters William Gray and Philip Klotzbach of the Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane forecast team issued a report reducing the number of storms expected in the basin this season.

A federal judge dealt a setback Monday to the Alaska Gasline Port Authority (AGPA) with dismissal of the consortium’s antitrust complaint against Exxon Mobil and BP. The AGPA complaint charged Exxon Mobil and BP with conspiring to refuse to sell natural gas from the resources they control on Alaska’s North Slope (see Daily GPI, Dec. 21, 2005).

Quick action in the House on comprehensive energy legislation was dealt a blow when the House Resources Committee postponed a markup that was scheduled for Wednesday.

Justice Department attorneys were dealt another blow on Friday when a federal judge ordered the Bush administration to turn over to two Washington, DC-based public interest groups more documents and records related to Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force, which developed the national energy policy last year.

Mexico’s Supreme Court dealt a setback to President Vicente Fox’s plan to promote private generation, voting 8-3 in April to reject changes in the country’s electricity laws. The court ruled that the modifications decreed last year by the Fox administration in an executive order are unconstitutional. Nationalists opposed to a growing movement toward private ownership in the country had challenged Fox’s May 2001 decree to promote private power generation development.