Improve

In an effort to improve the reliability of the Pacific Northwest’s natural gas supply, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved an application by NW Natural Gas Co. to provide storage services to the interstate gas market. With FERC’s ruling, NW Natural will be able to use the surplus of its 10 Bcf of underground storage capacity at Mist, OR, to help address the region’s energy challenges.

In an effort to improve the reliability of the Pacific Northwest’s natural gas supply, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved an application by NW Natural Gas Co. to provide storage services to the interstate gas market. With FERC’s ruling, NW Natural will be able to use the surplus of its 10 Bcf of underground storage capacity at Mist, OR, to help address the region’s energy challenges.

The Canadian natural gas community shows signs of curing itsexcess-capacity headache the easy way — by finding enoughsupplies with a few major wells to fill up the expanded pipelinegrid.

The Canadian natural gas community shows signs of curing itsexcess-capacity headache the easy way — by finding enoughsupplies with a few major wells to fill up the expanded pipelinegrid.

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory(NETL) through its Strategic Center for Natural Gas released asolicitation for proposals to improve the reliability of thenation’s natural gas infrastructure. NETL expects to fund researchand development projects totaling up to $10 million over athree-year period through this solicitation. Multiple awards areanticipated with industrial participants expected to contribute atleast 35% of each selected project’s cost. The proposals are due byJan. 9, 2001. The solicitation is available at the NETL web sitehttp://www.netl.doe.gov/business/solicit/index.html . For moreinformation, contact David J. Anna, (412) 386-4646, or e-mail:anna@netl.doe.gov .

The New York Public Service Commission yesterday directednatural gas utilities to take several measures to improve supplyreliability this winter for interruptible customers, and setrequirements for marketers to have firm transmission pipelinecapacity from November through March.

Coral Energy entered into an energy alliance with TerraIndustries Inc., an international chemicals company, to increasethe energy efficiency of Terra’s Blytheville, AR, chemical facilityusing Coral Site Advantage, Coral’s proprietary measurement,benchmarking and energy modeling program. Terms of the arrangementwere not released. The program will begin with a comprehensiveanalysis of energy requirements throughout the chemical complex.This information will be used in the development of a modelingprogram to establish a benchmark for optimal energy usage. “Energyis the major cost component at each of our manufacturingcomplexes,” said Mike Bennett, executive vice president for Terra.”The first step in that process is determining our precise energyneeds, which is a strength of the Coral Energy program. We expectto quickly achieve savings by becoming a more efficient energyuser.” Once the modeling system is in place, Coral will work withTerra to develop a multi-year energy savings plan, initiallyfocusing on energy utilized within existing plant processes. Coralwill receive compensation for its Coral Site Advantage servicesbased upon a portion of Terra’s measured energy savings.

Continuing with efforts to shed non-core assets and improve itsbalance sheet, CMS Energy Corp. announced an agreement yesterday tosell its 80% ownership of the 236 MW Lakewood Cogeneration ventureto Consolidated Edison for $94 million. The sale will result in a$182 million reduction of project debt from the CMS balance sheet.

Results from yesterday’s Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 175were buoyed by strong commodity prices. This year’s sale activitydwarfed that of last year’s Central Sale 172 by about 60%,according to the Minerals Management Service’s Gulf of Mexicooffice. High bids received at the sale totaled nearly $300.57million compared to $171.62 million in high bids last year.