Drew

A proposed 20 Bcf underground natural gas storage facility in Northern California drew strong interest in a recently completed open season, said its two principal backers, a subsidiary of Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Co. and San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E).

The California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) approach to restructuring natural gas utility operations in recent years drew praise from the nation’s largest gas distributor, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas), Wednesday at the final session of the two-day LDC Forum — Rockies & West conference in Los Angeles. The praise during a panel discussion on gas buying came from both utility and large end-user perspectives.

Two large city-run utilities in Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, drew “AA-” credit ratings from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) Tuesday on more than $1.7 billion of revenue bonds they collectively are preparing to offer. Both utilities are viewed as strong with “stable” outlooks by S&P, which generally views double-A ratings as “very strong” and only slightly lower than its highest rating..

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

Bobcat Gas Storage said its recent nonbinding open season drew market interest for five times the 12 Bcf of working gas capacity in its proposed salt dome storage project in St. Landry Parish, LA. The company has requested final FERC approval of the project by July 15 and expects service to begin in October 2007.

Washington Gas Light Co. (WGL) drew the ire of Dominion Resources last week by announcing that a recently conducted study blames vaporized LNG from Dominion’s Cove Point import terminal in Maryland for widespread leaks on the WGL distribution system in Prince Georges County, MD.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (Maritimes) said a recent open season drew expressions of interest from potential shippers for about 1.5 Bcf/d of additional firm transportation capacity. The new capacity would be used to transport regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from proposed terminals in Canada and possibly additional offshore natural gas production to markets in Canada and the United States.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (Maritimes) said a recent open season drew expressions of interest from potential shippers for about 1.5 Bcf/d of additional firm transportation capacity. The new capacity would be used to transport regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) from proposed terminals in Canada and possibly additional offshore natural gas production to markets in Canada and the United States.