Disputes

Energy companies have taken a beating by credit rating agencies, and finally one, Questar Corp., is fighting back. The company, whose credit remains investment grade but was downgraded by Moody’s Tuesday to A2 for Questar Pipeline and Questar Gas and Baa3 for Questar Market Resources, has done nothing to warrant a downgrade, according to CEO Keith O. Rattie.

If the assessment of a top industry analyst is correct, the structure of natural gas demand is undergoing a significant change which is likely to lead to increased weather-derived price volatility. Current price levels beg the question of how such elevated prices can be sustained given full storage supplies.

Dynegy Inc. said Monday that it plans to “vigorously contest” allegations by a former executive that he was fired for refusing to manipulate the company’s profits and losses in the third quarter of 2000. Bradley Farnsworth, former controller, filed the lawsuit Friday, claiming COO Steve Bergstrom asked him to engage in illegal practices involving natural gas trades in the United Kingdom. The lawsuit does not allege that Dynegy actually manipulated the books, and apparently, Farnsworth does not know if Dynegy had done so.

Producers’ economic decisions to shut down gas processing plants all along the Gulf Coast last year, leaving liquids in the gas stream, has led pipelines to place restrictions on the quality of the gas entering pipelines in order to protect their operations, the Interstate Natural Gas Assoc. of America (INGAA) said in a letter to FERC Chairman Pat Wood.

Battling on several fronts, El Paso Corp. affiliates last week defended against charges from California interests that it used market power to manipulate the market, claiming opposing testimony was rigged, and its own hedging losses argue against any attempt to withhold pipeline capacity from the market.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) claim that Williams Energy Marketing and Trading has market power in the California and western wholesale power markets and is flagrantly abusing it is unfounded, the marketer contends. Consequently, the CPUC’s request to suspend Williams Energy’s market-based rate authority should be rejected by FERC.

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) claim that Williams Energy Marketing and Trading has market power in the California and western wholesale power markets and is flagrantly abusing it is unfounded, the marketer contends. Consequently, the CPUC’s request to suspend Williams Energy’s market-based rate authority should be rejected by FERC.

Shell Oil joined the ranks Thursday of major producers who havesettled sizeable royalty disputes with the Department of Justice.The company has agreed to pay the U.S. $56 million to settle claimsthat it underpaid royalties on natural gas produced on Federalleases.

Discoveries are approaching 1 Tcf in a southern portion of theNorthwest Territories, which is emerging as Canada’s hottest newnatural-gas drilling play, fanning flames under a simmeringregulatory and political dispute over pipeline service throughAlberta.