Facing

The biggest problem facing natural gas pipelines in the West is the “hugely inflated cash demands” by Native Americans for renewal of rights-of-way (ROW) contracts for the use of their tribal lands, a top El Paso Corp. official told FERC Wednesday.

Facing natural retail price spikes exceeding 30% this winter, the five-member California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved an aggressive energy efficiency/conservation effort for the state’s four major private-sector energy utilities, carrying a price tag of nearly $2 billion over the next three years.

Four years after the power crisis that put out the lights in California, the state is still locked in an untenable position, facing a growing load with little net gain in generation capacity, relying on a fleet of aging power plants with the prospect of reduced imports from the Pacific Northwest and continuing policies that keep investment out of the state and limit demand response, according to witnesses at a joint hearing presided over by federal and state regulators last Thursday.

Gas producers stand warned to count on facing determined environmental resistance every step of the way if the British Columbia and federal governments press ahead on plans to end a 33-year-old ban against drilling in the offshore of the Canadian West Coast.

Gas producers stand warned to count on facing determined environmental resistance every step of the way if the British Columbia and federal governments press ahead on plans to end a 33-year-old ban against drilling in the offshore of the Canadian West Coast.

Siting authority over liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals will likely be the second most contentious issue facing the members of House Energy and Commerce Committee during mark-up of omnibus energy legislation, preceded only by the heated dispute over waivers for producers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), said an official with a major natural gas pipeline group.

Siting authority over liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals will likely be the second most contentious issue facing the members of House Energy and Commerce Committee during mark-up of omnibus energy legislation this week, preceded only by the heated dispute over waivers for producers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), said an official with a major natural gas pipeline group.

The buzz out West that Southern California could be facing power outages, perhaps as soon as this summer, was called into question by a Fitch Ratings analyst last Wednesday, who noted that such an outcome depends on a lot of things going wrong at the same time.

The biggest challenges facing El Paso Corp. in 2005 will be hitting a $2 billion debt reduction target, getting its cost structure under control after more than $4 billion in asset sales over the last couple of years and turning around its exploration and production (E&P) business, CEO Doug L. Foshee told analysts at the UBS 2005 Natural Gas and Electric Utilities Conference on Wednesday.