Entering

Entering British Columbia’s competitive natural gas supplier market, Centrica plc subsidiary Direct Energy said Tuesday that it has begun offering price protection plans for natural gas that are carbon neutral, which is a first in Canada. The company said the move will make it easy for British Columbians to offset greenhouse gas emissions caused by their natural gas consumption.

Tennessee indicated that repairs to correct problems caused by liquids entering Station 823 may be proceeding faster than expected. Barring any unexpected issues, Tennessee said Friday, it anticipated that the work would be complete in two to three days; on Wednesday it had estimated “five to 10 days” (see Daily GPI, April 19). As a result, the pipeline saw a good chance of restrictions through Station 823 being lifted by the end of the weekend. Tennessee said that as an alternative, it had analyzed the possibility of activating the Seahawk meter. “However, after further investigation, Tennessee has determined that opening the Seahawk meter is not a viable option due to a lack of flow control in the area. Without flow control, the possibility of free flowing liquids into Tennessee’s system at Grand Chenier and Kinder is too great a risk.” In an effort to assist customers in moving their gas off the Tennessee system, it was offering discounts at six meters and said “any other mutually agreeable meters upstream of Station 823” could be used.

Southern California Gas did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Wednesday.

The expected flood of regasified LNG entering the Gulf Coast region in the next few years has prompted plans for another high-deliverability gas storage project. Black Bayou Storage LLC, which is owned by three privately owned companies, is holding a binding open season for service at a planned 11 Bcf salt dome storage facility in Cameron Parish, LA.

The expected flood of regasified LNG entering the Gulf Coast region in the next few years has prompted plans for another high-deliverability gas storage project. Black Bayou Storage LLC, which is owned by three privately owned companies, is holding a binding open season for service at a planned 11 Bcf salt dome storage facility in Cameron Parish, LA.

The U.S. is entering “an era when mergers are going to be more difficult again” and will “only be easy in places where there’s a very troubled utility,” Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe said last Thursday in remarks made at the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. strategic decisions conference in New York City.

BG Alaska E&P Inc. is entering the Foothills area of Alaska’s North Slope through a participation agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Petro-Canada (Alaska) Inc. The BG Group subsidiary is taking a one-third equity share of 2.1 million acres; Anadarko will be the operator.

News that newly upgraded Hurricane Wilma was now expected to shift course eastward toward lower Florida after entering the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), instead of menacing the offshore production area as believed the day before, had reached cash traders by the time they got down to business Tuesday morning. So they ignored Monday’s screen spike of nearly 70 cents, and instead sent prices lower at all points Tuesday.

While it may not be much comfort, natural gas consumers nationwide would have faced an even more precarious supply and price situation entering this winter had the industry not finished last winter with a larger than normal amount of gas in storage and maintained typical injections throughout much of the year, a Houston-based independent storage developer told FERC last Wednesday.