Immediate

Congress, meeting in an emergency session, has approved a $10.5 billion supplemental emergency spending measure to fund the immediate relief efforts and restoration of infrastructure in the three hurricane-stricken Gulf coastal states, including repairs to energy facilities toppled by hurricane force winds and submerged in floodwaters onshore.

FERC on Wednesday gave Trunkline Gas Co. LLC the go-ahead to place into immediate service a pipeline loop expansion and metering station to accommodate increased deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from affiliate Trunkline LNG’s import terminal at Lake Charles, LA.

In the immediate aftermath of EnCana Corp.’s decision announced Monday to sell its natural gas storage business, including underground facilities in California, Oklahoma and Alberta, several western companies declined to comment on whether they would be interested in one or more of the facilities. EnCana announced Monday it intends to divest the storage business either through a competitive auction or an initial public offering (see Daily GPI, June 21).

With below normal temperature forecasts and no immediate threat from tropical storms or hurricanes, the natural gas futures market tumbled to fresh, four-month lows Monday on selling from both commercial and speculative accounts.

With a long holiday weekend and increasingly moderate weather looming on the immediate horizon, no one was surprised to see across-the-board declines in double digits Thursday for prices through the end of the month. And despite a surprisingly low storage injection report and the late-afternoon emergence of Tropical Storm Fabian, sources expect softening to continue Friday in trading for the initial September aftermarket.

NGPL shut in two receipt points in the immediate area shortly after identifying a mainline failure in Caddo County, OK shortly before 1 p.m. CDT Friday. No injuries or significant physical damage to the surrounding area have been reported, according to the pipeline. It said it would use its “operational flexibility to minimize the impact to shippers for today’s [Friday] gas day and most likely for future days.” The incident resulted in a few transportation constraints; see the bulletin board for details. No delivery points were being impacted Friday, the pipeline said, but delivery points along the A/G Line (Segments 15 and 17) “are at a slight risk of being impacted.”

Skyrocketing natural gas prices and the resulting energy crisis demand immediate legislative action, according to the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), a non-profit association of major industrial firms with at least 31 supporting members including Alcoa, Bayer, Dow Chemical, the Steel Manufacturers Association and others.

Skyrocketing natural gas prices and the resulting energy crisis demand immediate legislative action, according to the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), a non-profit association of major industrial firms with at least 31 supporting members including Alcoa, Bayer, Dow Chemical, the Steel Manufacturers Association and others.

Utah regulators awarded Questar Gas an immediate increase in its general rates of slightly more than 3%, effective Dec. 30. The Salt Lake City, UT-based natural gas distribution company also had its allowed rate of return on equity raised to 11.2% from 11%.