Examining

Private U. S. pipeline operators and a branch of Mexico’s state-owned energy company, PEMEX, have been quietly examining the possibility of a new natural gas pipeline from New Mexico’s San Juan Basin to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, TX, according to a Houston-based energy consultant who closely monitors Mexican energy developments. The New Mexico pipeline concept is a more recent offshoot of earlier proposals for a new line from West Texas.

A bonus and incentive plan used by Royal Dutch/Shell Group is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine whether it encouraged upper level management to overstate oil and gas reserves, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

As FERC mulls possible changes to its approach in examining generation market power in the electric industry, the Commission must not put on blinders and simply focus only on possible unilateral exercises of market power, a top official with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said last week.

Independent producer North Coast Energy said that after examining its strategic alternatives over the last few months it has agreed to be acquired by Dallas-based EXCO Resources for $10.75/share or about $164 million.

Independent producer North Coast Energy said that after examining its strategic alternatives over the last few months it has agreed to be acquired by Dallas-based EXCO Resources for $10.75/share or about $164 million (see Daily GPI, Oct. 8).

An interim report issued on Wednesday by a U.S.-Canada joint task force examining the massive Aug. 14 blackout that cut through large swaths of the U.S. and Canada says that Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) violated several voluntary reliability standards set by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).

The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) on Monday launched an investigation examining the establishment of standards and criteria for financially weakened gas and electric utilities “to assure retail customers continuity of service, including, in particular, continuity in the quality of that utility service.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) examining how best to handle the confidentiality of certain documents, as it weighs its regulatory responsibilities against the need to protect against possible attacks on the nation’s critical energy infrastructure.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will convene a conference in the near future examining issues that have cropped up related to regional transmission organizations (RTOs), Curt Hebert, the Commission’s chairman, said yesterday. Although specifics on the conference remain somewhat sketchy, it appears that the issue of seams in the broader context of RTO formation will be a key topic of discussion at the gathering.