Expanded

Pacific Gas & Electric expanded Thursday’s customer-specific low-inventory OFO on its California Gas Transmission system into a systemwide Stage 2 low-inventory OFO for Friday. Penalties of $1/Dth were set for negative daily imbalances exceeding a 5% tolerance.

After issuing a customer-specific Stage 2 low-inventory OFO Monday afternoon on its California Gas Transmission system for Tuesday’s gas day, Pacific Gas & Electric expanded it to a systemwide Stage 2 OFO for Wednesday. Penalties were $1/Dth for exceeding an 8% tolerance on negative daily imbalances in both cases.

PECO’s new gas delivery rate will take effect on Jan. 1 and will fund expanded energy efficiency and customer programs, higher operating costs and new investments in the gas distribution system in the Philadelphia suburbs, the utility said Monday.

El Paso expanded a location-specific Strained Operation Condition (SOC) due to drafting-caused low linepack that it had declared Saturday to a systemwide SOC Sunday. The imbalance tolerance was set initially at 10%, El Paso said, but will be reduced “if conditions do not sufficiently improve.” System linepack had fallen below 7,100 MMcf “with continued takes in excess of scheduled deliveries. Additionally, the San Juan supply basin continues to experience underperformance issues related to the cold weather with an approximate shortfall of 400 MMcf at the present time [Sunday] and [El Paso] is beginning to see underperformance in the Permian supply basin as well. Performance caps have been placed and will continue to be placed on underperforming supplies.” Its Washington Ranch storage facility was on maximum withdrawal, the pipeline said. Interruptible Storage Service was suspended Sunday until further notice.

FERC Wednesday gave Dominion Cove Point LNG LP the go-ahead to begin service from the expanded Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal facilities on the eastern shore of Maryland. A spokesman said expansion service is scheduled to start either later this month or in early January.

Jack N. Gerard, former president of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and a long-time advocate of expanded offshore drilling, was elected president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) by the board of directors last Monday, succeeding Red Cavaney, who will leave Oct. 31 after 30 years with the institute. The board also named Devon Energy CEO J. Larry Nichols chairman, making him the first CEO of an independent oil and natural gas company to hold that position at the API, which represents producers mostly on issues before Congress. Although he represented chemical companies as head of the ACC, Gerard has been deeply involved in energy issues — particularly as a critic of the ban on drilling in the federal Outer Continental Shelf and its impact on natural gas prices. Nichols co-founded Devon with his father and has been a director since 1971. He was named chairman of the board of directors in 2000, served as president of the company between 1976 and 2003, and has been CEO since 1980. Cavaney will join ConocoPhillips’ office in Washington, DC, as senior vice president of government and public affairs. At the ACC, Gerard has been succeeded by Cal Dooley, most recently CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association and a former congressman representing California.

Jack N. Gerard, former president of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and a long-time advocate of expanded offshore drilling, was elected president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) by the board of directors Monday, succeeding Red Cavaney who will leave Oct. 31 after 30 years with the institute.

Watching the Wall Street credit meltdown and its aftermath, California regulators last Thursday expanded financing limits on the state’s two largest private-sector utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).

Watching the Wall Street credit meltdown and its aftermath, California regulators Thursday expanded financing limits on the state’s two largest private-sector utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).