Declaring

Pacific Gas & Electric set the tolerance for positive daily imbalances at zero in declaring a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Wednesday. The utility also said that new nominations placed in the Intraday 1 and Intraday 2 cycles were being cut to zero for Tuesday’s gas day. System constraints for Intraday 1 and 2 would be held to Evening scheduled volumes, PG&E said.

Pacific Gas & Electric set a stringent tolerance of zero for positive daily imbalances in declaring a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday. Penalties are $1/Dth.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently released a statement declaring the proposed Islander East pipeline project officially dead even before the Commerce Department issues its final decision on the project.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal released a statement on Friday declaring the proposed Islander East pipeline project officially dead even before the Commerce Department issues its final decision on the project. Blumenthal said that the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) denial of a water quality certification essentially prevents the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing a dredging permit to Islander East.

After declaring a System Overrun Limitation for all market-area zones Friday and Saturday, Northern Natural Gas let Sunday and Monday slide with no SOL, then issued a new one affecting Zone E/F only for Tuesday. However, on Monday afternoon NNG said it had “expired” the SOL posted for Tuesday “due to increasing Zone E/F forecasted temperatures.”

Pacific Gas & Electric set a stringent imbalance tolerance of zero in declaring a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Wednesday. Penalties are $1/Dth. The utility’s “System Inventory Status” section of its Pipe Ranger bulletin board projected Tuesday that linepack would be above maximum target levels from Wednesday through Sept. 19.

Marathon Oil has filed an appeal in federal court in Wyoming seeking to overturn a ruling by the Interior Department’s Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) that found three Marathon-owned leases for coalbed methane (CBM) development in the Powder River Basin were illegally awarded by the federal government in early 2000.

Declaring their responses to questions related to FERC’s probe into energy price manipulation to be either glaringly incomplete or simply not credible, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week ordered four suppliers — El Paso Electric Co., Avista Corp., Portland General Electric and Williams Energy Marketing & Trading — to show why they shouldn’t be stripped of their authority to sell energy at unregulated rates dating back to Feb. 13 of this year, when the Commission opened its investigation into potential gaming of western power and natural gas markets.

Oklahoma gas producers are close to declaring victory in abattle with the state’s pipeline companies. New legislationexpected to be signed by the governor within two weeks would givestate regulators greater authority to settle gathering disputes,ensure producers are provided open access to gas transportation,and to ensure the rates, terms and conditions of gatheringcontracts are just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory.