Hinges

FERC Chairman Pat Wood said he plans to reserve judgment on whether confidence has been restored in published price indexes until industry surveys are returned and an agency staff report based on the survey responses is completed.

If the controversial price supports for Alaska gas production fail to make it into the broad energy bill being negotiated, “there will be nothing of significance in the bill that addresses the supply-demand needs” of natural gas customers in the United States, said an official for Alaska producer ConocoPhillips Thursday.

Canadian gas production was down 0.2% during the second quarter compared to the second quarter of 2001 and would have been down by about 3% without the benefit of production from the Ladyfern project in northeastern British Columbia about 65 miles northeast of Fort St. John, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. He expects Canadian gas production to end the year either up 1% or down 1% assuming Ladyfern production remains flat at about 650 MMcf/d.

FERC’s marketing affiliate rule, which hinges on the hope thatpipeline owners will police themselves, has been about as effectiveas a wolf guarding a henhouse, says a Washington D.C. lawyer whorepresents producers and independent marketers. Because ofescalating abuses in the market, he believes overhauling Order 497should be the first priority of the Commission in its post-Order637 dialogue with the natural gas industry.