ferc

North America should find plenty of outlets for its copious natural gas reserves, but some questions need to be clarified soon, such as whether to allow manufacturers to dictate how much supply remains onshore, or whether the free market fuels an export revolution, according to Statoil ASA’s chief economist.

GDF Suez Gas NA is accepting through the end of 2013 nonbinding bids for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply from its proposed advanceLNG Project, “an initiative to provide attractively priced LNG to a wide array of customers in the U.S. Northeast,” the company said.

Traffic continues to grow on the northbound natural gas freeway from the United States into Ontario and Quebec, fueling plans to increase delivery capacity on the Canadian side of the border.

TheFederal Energy Regulatory Commissionhas issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of an expansion ofTexas Eastern Transmission LP’s (Tetco) system to deliver an additional 600,000 Dth/d of Marcellus Shale gas to market areas in New Jersey and New York [CP13-84]. The Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market Project (TEAM 2014) calls for building 33.6 miles of 36-inch diameter gas pipeline in seven separate loops and associated pipeline facilities in Pennsylvania; upgrades and abandonments of compressor stations, resulting in the net increase of 77,100 hp; and bidirectional flow modifications at 18 existing compressors, 17 pig launcher and receiver sites, and two existing meter and regulating facilities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. The project has an in-service target of November 2014 (seeNGI,Jan. 23, 2012).

The first Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports may have to settle for boarding tankers at a new port on the U.S. West Coast, a champion of British Columbia (BC) projects conceded last week.

FERC last week approved a joint request for temporary waivers of some agency regulations to facilitate the $3.75 billion sale of Apache Corp.’s Gulf of Mexico (GOM) assets to Fieldwood Energy LLC.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday issued long-awaitedproposed rulesfor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for new power plants, leaving gas-fired plants mostly unaffected but making construction of new coal-fired plants problematic.

A manufacturers’ trade association has filed out of time to comment and intervene in the next U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export license case, arguing that recent export approvals show a need for “more particularized and informative standards” in evaluating applications.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said Thursday he would join Republicans in voting against former Colorado regulator Ron Binz for FERC chairman, which would sink his nomination if the rest of the votes in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee split along party lines.