Distribution

Arizona regulators opened a prehearing conference on a 4% general rate increase request by UNS Gas Inc., the UniSource Energy Corp. natural gas distribution utility in parts of Arizona. The Arizona Corporation Commission has scheduled evidentiary hearings to run through Feb. 17. UNS is asking for an annual revenue increase of $5.6 million, increasing its rate base to $254 million, effective May 1. Tucson, AZ-based UniSource Energy is the holding company for UniSource Energy Services, which provides gas and electric services to about 237,000 customers, along with Tucson Electric Power, which provides electricity to more than 400,000 customers in southern Arizona.

Demand for drilling equipment in North America’s onshore continues to be strong, with the backlog of capital equipment orders in rig technology in the final three months of 2011 double year-ago levels, National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NOV) reported Thursday.

NiSource Gas Transmission & Storage (NGT&S) is in the latter stages of developing a 90-mile pipeline in western Pennsylvania to support increased Marcellus Shale natural gas production, NiSource Inc. officials said Wednesday.

Six investor-owned natural gas and electric utilities in New York — Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., Consolidated Edison Inc., National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp., National Grid, New York State Electric & Gas Corp. and Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. — have formed Energy Coalition New York “to provide public policy leadership on energy issues” in the state, a coalition spokesman said Wednesday.

For the third consecutive year, Oregon state regulators on Monday lowered the retail charges in natural gas rates for two of the state’s three private-sector gas distribution utilities. The lower charges are effective Tuesday and will bring continued lower winter gas bills, although the rates for one utility stayed essentially flat.

Julie Dill, who is currently president of Union Gas, Spectra Energy Corp.’s Ontario-based local distribution company, on Jan. 1 will become president and CEO of Spectra Energy Partners, the company’s master limited partnership, and will also assume the role of group vice president of strategy for Spectra Energy Corp., the Houston-based company said. Current Spectra Energy Partners president and CEO Greg Rizzo will continue in his other primary role as group vice president of regulatory affairs and will become the company’s key liaison with the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America. Also effective at the beginning of the year, Steve Baker, currently vice president and treasurer, Spectra Energy Corp., will become president of Union Gas; Guy Buckley, currently group vice president for corporate development and Strategy, Spectra Energy Corp., will become vice president and treasurer of Spectra Energy Corp; Sabra Harrington, currently vice president and controller, Spectra Energy Corp., will become vice president of risk management and financial planning, Spectra Energy Corp., and Allen Capps, currently vice president of business development, Union Gas, will become vice president and controller, Spectra Energy Corp.

With Marcellus Shale production growing exponentially, midstream players in the region are handling that additional supply in different ways, company officials told a Pittsburgh-area audience last week.

While producers, local distribution companies (LDC) and processors in the Southwest may have believed they were prepared to meet natural gas demand during extreme cold weather events, their weatherization programs were woefully inadequate, a task force report said (see NGI, Feb. 7).

Three-and-a-half years after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Calpine Corp. made its final financial distribution spelled out in its court-approved plan for emerging from bankruptcy protection in late January 2008. Calpine released approximately 19.8 million shares of its common stock from reserves that previously had been set aside to satisfy bankruptcy claims that were still unresolved when the independent (mostly natural gas-fired) power plant operator/developer left Chapter 11 protection. Calpine senior officials hailed the milestone as putting the company’s debt-laden past to bed. The reserve shares were already counted among the 486 million weighted average shares outstanding listed by the company as of June 30, so there is no impact on earnings or cash flow from the final release of shares. Noting all the “technical matters” from the past are behind Calpine, CFO Zamir Rauf said the company now has “fully resolved all claims associated with our bankruptcy.”