Done

The energy industry has done all it can to prepare for possible hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, but a “fragile people situation” remains, Chevron Corp. CEO Dave O’Reilly said Wednesday.

It’s a long way from a done deal, but after years of up and down negotiations, Alaska last week announced an agreement with the three major North Slope producers — BP plc, ConocoPhillps and ExxonMobil Corp. — to build a natural gas pipeline to transport 4.5-6 Bcf/d of new supplies to the Lower 48. The agreement, tied to a controversial new oil and gas tax system, still has to be approved by the state legislature, and some members are questioning provisions pushed by Gov. Frank Murkowski, which, they say, give producers too many incentives.

The Department of Energy has concluded that creating a natural gas reserve similar to what has been done with petroleum would be “problematic” because of the substantial number of privately owned gas storage fields already in operation throughout the country, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said during a media breakfast presentation hosted by Energy Daily.

Laying out a list of what he says still needs to be done in order to bolster demand response (DR) in the U.S., FERC Chairman Patrick Wood said that in planning, DR “should be considered to be an equal resource” with generation and transmission.

The use of so-called “conservative assumptions” in the study done for FERC on LNG tanker safety has resulted in “unrealistic potential consequences that may unduly alarm the public,” the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas (CLNG) said last week.

Two-thirds of polled Americans don’t believe Congress has done enough to adopt a comprehensive energy policy to meet the nation’s present and future energy needs, according to a public opinion survey released last Tuesday by the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth (AEEG).

Two-thirds of polled Americans don’t believe Congress has done enough to adopt a comprehensive energy policy to meet the nation’s present and future energy needs, according to a public opinion survey released Tuesday by the Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth (AEEG).

As he had done against five merchant generators last year, California’s lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante Wednesday filed a criminal lawsuit in a Los Angeles state Superior Court on behalf of the state’s taxpayers against energy traders and two McGraw-Hill industry publications that publish natural gas price indices relied on by state officials and the market to establish energy prices.

A superior credit rating and financial acumen apparently have done little to help revive Enron Corp.’s collapsed energy trading operations. UBS Warburg Energy debuted early this year after taking over the trading business. However, the Houston-based unit has failed to produce, and 10 months later, the corporation’s president admits the “business outlook is very challenging.”