Flags

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s proposed rule aimed at broadening its anti-manipulation reach in energy markets has raised red flags in both the natural gas and electricity industries.

The gas market, particularly in the Northeast, got a little scare last week when striking tugboat workers shut down liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from Trinidad, the largest LNG exporter to the United States, for two days.

The gas market, particularly in the Northeast, got a little scare last week when striking tugboat workers shut down liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from Trinidad, the largest LNG exporter to the United States, for two days.

NorthWestern Corp., the holding company for a Montana combination utility, may have trouble continuing as viable business depending on the outcome of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, according to the company’s 10-Q Securities and Exchange Commission filing earlier this month.

Producers and analysts sent up red flags last week at GasMart/Power 2001 in Tampa, FL, about future gas supply potential north of the border. Currently known resources appear to be inadequate and at the current rate of production would be depleted in little more than a decade, they said. Furthermore, the common belief that new sources of supply will be adequate to replace rapidly depleting reserves may be mistaken, the experts said.

Producers and analysts sent up red flags yesterday at GasMart/Power 2001 in Tampa, FL, about future gas supply potential north of the border. Currently known resources appear to be inadequate and at the current rate of production would be depleted in little more than a decade. Furthermore, the common belief that new sources of supply will be adequate to replace rapidly depleting reserves may be mistaken, the experts said.

Although U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has been sendingup red flags all over the country about problems with the nation’selectric reliability because of at least six power outages thatoccurred last summer, several Mid-Atlantic utility executives toldthe secretary yesterday at a regional “summit meeting” in Newark,NJ, that they are ready and waiting for the next summer demandpeak.

Major natural gas producers are seeing red flags everywhere inthe wake of Petal Gas Storage L.L.C’s decision to scrap itsoriginal proposal to build three new pipeline interconnects to itsstorage facilities in Mississippi. They contend the proposal hasbeen amended to benefit Petal’s new-found affiliates at the expenseof non-affiliated customers.