Finds

Western Canada’s natural gas production will continue to be the key to the country’s gas supply, while Canada’s frontier regions will supplement the volumes available from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, according to the authors of a comprehensive four-year study. However, future supplies will cost more to find and produce because the average size of new gas pools, mostly in western Canada, is shrinking.

A recent report finds that all six of PJM Interconnection’s markets were reasonably competitive in 2000, although the same report warns of potential threats to competition in at least three of PJM’s markets that deserve ongoing scrutiny. At the same time, the report recommends the retention of bid caps in two of PJM’s markets and the continued development of demand-side responsiveness initiatives.

A significant number of customers who have entered into an electric retail open access (ROA) enrollment process sponsored by Consumers Energy Co. are holding back on taking the next step for open access service, according to a recent investigation done by staff at the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC). Although PSC staff did not find a direct correlation between the low participation rates and problems with Consumers’ enrollment process, it voiced concerns over whether the company will be able to handle a much larger anticipated volume of customers once full electric open access kicks in at the start of next year in Michigan.

The gas price increases in the West over the past year had no direct causal relationship with the price of power there and therefore cannot be blamed for high western wholesale electricity prices, according to a study commissioned by the Natural Gas Supply Association and sent to Capitol Hill and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week.

Under political pressure to add gas transportation capacity in the state of California, Sempra subsidiary Southern California Gas announced additional plans to expand its intrastate pipeline system. The company said it will add another 6% of capacity to its previously announced project, bringing the proposed expansion to an 11% increase in capacity or about 200 MMcf/d.

Under political pressure to add gas transportation capacity in the state of California, Sempra subsidiary Southern California Gas announced additional plans to expand its intrastate pipeline system. The company said it will add another 6% of capacity to its previously announced project, bringing the proposed expansion to an 11% increase in capacity or about 200 MMcf/d.

The gas price increases in the West over the past year had no direct causal relationship with the price of power there and therefore cannot be blamed for high western wholesale electricity prices, according to a study commissioned by the Natural Gas Supply Association and sent to Capitol Hill and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this week.

El Paso Natural Gas and El Paso Merchant Energy probably exercised market power in the Southern California gas market and drove up gas prices over the past year when pipeline capacity constraints existed, FERC staff concluded last week in testimony before Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr.

El Paso Natural Gas and El Paso Merchant Energy probably exercised market power in the Southern California gas market and drove up gas prices over the past year when pipeline capacity constraints existed, FERC staff concluded last week in testimony before Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr.