Highly

El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP’s (KMP) Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) have linked “western and Northeast markets in a way that they were not linked historically,” according to Bentek Energy LLC. And with Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) pending acquisition of El Paso, the two pipelines are slated to be corporate cousins, at least for awhile.

In a highly unprecedented move, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Tuesday ordered Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E) to stop the use of helicopters until their safe use can be assured in the utility’s massive $1.9 billion Sunrise Powerlink transmission line project, the combination utility’s largest infrastructure project in four decades.

A unit of General Electric (GE) has developed a new natural gas-fired 50 MW generation turbine that operates without water. GE claims its FlexAero (LM 6000-PH) turbine is highly efficient and provides a faster, more flexible source of electricity to businesses and communities alike with onsite power generation needs. It is aimed at both utilities and large industrial/commercial customers, a GE spokesperson told NGI. FlexAero represents a multi-million-dollar investment in research and development by GE, the spokesperson said. GE also said that it has passed the $1 billion mark in orders received for both aeroderivative and heavy duty gas turbines for projects in North America. GE touts its new turbine as “leveraging” the use of clean-burning natural gas in a quick-start context.

SM Energy Co. raised its guidance for 2011 and introduced plans for 2012 that surpass what analysts were expecting as company executives emphasized a sharpened focus on the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

Responding to a Hearst Newspapers investigation that was highly critical of joint government-industry funding of pipeline safety research, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last Monday directed the federal agency responsible for ensuring pipeline safety to cease its practice of using industry funds to help finance pipeline research.

Responding to a Hearst Newspapers investigation that was highly critical of joint government-industry funding of pipeline safety research, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Monday directed the federal agency responsible for ensuring pipeline safety to cease its practice of using industry funds to help finance pipeline research.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has told state regulators that at least 34 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines running through highly populated areas have been incorrectly identified as “seamless,” similar to the section of 30-inch diameter pipe that ruptured in San Bruno, CA, last September.

A pipeline project to deliver Marcellus Shale ethane from Pennsylvania to Canadian markets was announced Tuesday by MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP.

Mixed price movement returned to the market Friday following losses at virtually all points a day earlier, but mostly moderate softness stayed highly dominant.