Distribution

Depressed commodity prices, declining production and lower distributable cash flow (DCF) are heralding a potential cut to EV Energy Partners unitholder distributions next year unless commodity prices improve, executives said Monday.

With the completion of a merger forming Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group, a controversial multi-billion-dollar, multi-year effort to replace the aging natural gas pipeline system in Chicago is getting a fresh look, WEC’s CEO told financial analysts during a quarterly earnings conference call last week.

Southern Company plans to buy AGL Resources in a $12 billion deal, adding natural gas infrastructure in order “to play offense in supporting America’s energy future,” Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning said Monday.

GE Energy Financial Services and its joint venture partner Alinda Capital Partners LLC plan to sell their Colorado-based multi-state natural gas utility distribution operations, which they acquired from Kinder Morgan and others in 2007 (see Daily GPI, April 9, 2007).

Fueled by the unconventional onshore revolution, U.S. natural gas costs less, is safer and increasingly is more plentiful, according to the American Gas Association (AGA).

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has eliminated the last of the old cast iron pipe from its natural gas distribution system in an accelerated effort that dates back to 1986 when there was still 847 miles of cast iron in the combination utility’s system.

Natural gas is often called a “bridge fuel” to cleaner energy production, but a researcher in the Netherlands believes that natural gas pipelines can be a bridge for the renewable gas hydrogen.

TransCanada Corp. has set out to obtain a speedy verdict on plans to overhaul and enlarge its pipeline network by brushing aside objections from natural gas distribution companies in Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., still facing multi-billion-dollar penalties for its natural gas system safety lapses, was granted a 2014 general rate increase of $460 million, or 6.9% above current rates, by California regulators Thursday with heavy implications for its current and future safety programs. This case is separate from still-pending pipeline penalty cases (see Daily GPI, May 7, 2013).