Faced

After returning to normal linepack levels over the weekend after a lengthy period of dealing with high linepack, Kern River was faced with a different problem Tuesday: low linepack in all four segments that the pipeline attributed to drafting of its system and loss of supply during the preceding 24 hours. “If drafting continues, Kern River will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure the integrity of the system is maintained,” it said.

As it prepared for a winter of discontent among retail natural gas customers, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. faced the year’s shortest day Wednesday acknowledging violations and accepting civil penalties handed out by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the giant combination utility’s mishandling of the record-keeping at its long-closed Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant in the far northwest end of California.

Cash prices finally faced up to the reality of weak fundamentals Friday with across the board plunges. Many points fell more than a dollar as moderate weather, brimming storage coffers, pipeline OFOs, prior-day screen softness and the usual weekend drop in industrial load ganged up on a market that had been mostly rising in the previous three days with little visible means of support.

Whether you dismissed it as “storm hype” or considered it a justifiable reason for concern that hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast supplies faced the possibility of another major hit late this week, one thing was for certain. The Monday morning formation of Tropical Storm Wilma in the western Caribbean Sea was the primary reason for cash market spikes Monday that were around or exceeded a dollar in most cases.

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.

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 on Wednesday.

Faced with a fast growing residential/commercial area in the greater high desert Yucca Valley area about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. is planning to increase its transmission pipeline capacity into the relatively remote area north of Palm Springs, a company official verified Tuesday. Large loads at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base to the east and growing residential and commercial uses of gas in Yucca Valley prompted the plans.

Faced with a lengthy new siege of cold weather that could come close to rivaling the blizzard experienced last weekend, all Northeast citygates shot higher by multi-dollar amounts Wednesday. And once again the rest of the cash market appeared quite bland in comparison, with price movement seldom varying by much more than a nickel up or down from flat, although gains extended as high as about 35 cents (Dominion in Appalachia) and losses ran as big as half a dollar (Transco Station 45 in the Gulf Coast).

The scale of the regulatory hurdles faced by the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline project in Canada “rivals the complexity and uncertainty of regulatory and policy making found anywhere overseas,” according to gas analyst Paul Ziff.