Decade

With natural gas prices significantly higher than they were a decade ago, Entergy Louisiana is looking to cut its utility customers a break by transforming one of its gas-fired power plants near New Orleans into a coal-fired unit. While coal-fired plants create more emissions, the cheaper fuel could end up saving the utility’s customers $150 million in fuel costs during the first year of operation, Entergy Louisiana said.

With natural gas prices significantly higher than they were a decade ago, Entergy Louisiana is looking to cut its utility customers a break by transforming one of its gas-fired power plants near New Orleans into a coal-fired unit. While coal-fired plants create more emissions, the cheaper fuel could end up saving the utility’s customers $150 million in fuel costs during the first year of operation, Entergy Louisiana said.

Annual price volatility at the Henry Hub has been high for the past decade, but there is no consistent trend of increasing or decreasing volatility, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). However, volatility is consistently higher in the New York market than in Chicago or at the Henry Hub.

It was almost a decade ago when the oil and gas industry saw the beginning of the mega-merger era with BP plc’s acquisition of Amoco (see NGI, Aug. 24, 1998). That deal and the other consolidation plays that followed were triggered by low oil prices as the majors were striving to lower their costs.

It was almost a decade ago when the oil and gas industry saw the beginning of the mega-merger era with BP plc’s acquisition of Amoco (see Daily GPI, Aug. 12, 1998). That deal and the other consolidation plays that followed were triggered by low oil prices as the majors were striving to lower their costs.

Annual price volatility at the Henry Hub has been high for the past decade, but there is no consistent trend of increasing or decreasing volatility, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Drawing a close to an earlier chapter in the utility holding company’s almost decade-long history, San Diego-based Sempra Energy last week confirmed it has found a buyer, Great Falls, MT-based Energy West Inc., for its two small, start-up natural gas distribution utilities in the East — in Bangor, Maine, and North Carolina. Collectively, the two utilities have slightly more than 1,000 customers.

Drawing a close to an earlier chapter in the utility holding company’s almost decade-long history, San Diego-based Sempra Energy Monday confirmed it has found a buyer, Great Falls, MT-based Energy West Inc., for its two small, start-up natural gas distribution utilities in the East — in Bangor, Maine, and North Carolina. Collectively, the two utilities have slightly more than 1,000 customers.

The Supreme Court last Monday in a 7-0 decision came down on the side of the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service in its nearly decade-long pursuit to recover royalties from BP America Production and another producer for coalbed methane production on federal leases in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin.