Decided

Completing a triple-play of sorts, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission Tuesday decided three separate issues for Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities — a retail natural gas rate net decrease, a retail electric rate net increase, and a 20-year purchased power agreement for up to 11.99 MW as a qualifying facility (QF) project, but at rates less than the published QF tariff. The utility will pay $58.50/MWh, rather than the PUC’s $61.60/MWh rate for most QF contracts. Avista wanted to pay $49/MWh.

Apparently bewildered by a substantial drop in their company’s stock price, management at Denver-based PRB Energy Inc. decided to make the best of things and repurchase up to 10%, or 750,000, of outstanding common shares.

Hot off an annual meeting where they decided that “shut up and cash your check just won’t work anymore,” members of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) launched a campaign against intrastate gas marketing practices they say are at best clouding the market and at worst ripping them off.

Not including triple-digit spikes in the Rockies where a major transportation constraint was ending, the rest of the market was mixed Tuesday but with a decided bias to the downside. Prices felt negative pressure from very little cooling demand remaining but not much heating load to replace it; a 4-cent screen drop the day before; and reviving concerns that a dearth of storage injection capacity could lead to production shut-ins, according to some analysts.

Hot off an annual meeting where they decided that “shut up and cash your check just won’t work anymore,” members of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO) launched a campaign against intrastate gas marketing practices they say are at best clouding the market and at worst ripping them off.

Following the 79.2-cent combined drop from Monday and Tuesday, August natural gas futures on Wednesday decided to explore the upside for a change. After reaching a high of $5.930 in afternoon trading, prompt-month natural gas settled at $5.862, up 30.7 cents on the day.

Following days of silence, Houston Exploration Co. (THX) late Monday said its board of directors has unanimously decided that the unsolicited acquisition proposal by JANA Partners LLC (see Daily GPI, June 23) was not in the best interests of its shareholders. Instead, the independent announced that Lehman Brothers Inc. will help “in exploring a broad range of strategic alternatives to further enhance shareholder value.”

Although there was no public announcement, the Long Beach, CA Port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners in closed session June 5 decided to let expire an ongoing exclusive rights agreement with the proposed developer of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the harbor. The five-member board said it would await the final environmental impact report (EIR) on the project before taking any further action.

With firm commitments for a 537,200 Dth/d expansion/extension of Guardian Pipeline, Northern Border Partners LP decided it was an opportune time to enlarge its stake in the Wisconsin pipeline system. The company announced Thursday that it paid $77 million to Wisconsin Energy Corp. and WPS Resources Corp. for their separate 33.3% shares in Guardian. The deals give Northern Border 100% ownership of Guardian.