Indefinitely

San Diego, CA-based Sempra Energy has pushed back indefinitely opening its 17 Bcf Liberty Gas Storage project in Louisiana that is tied to its liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the final months of construction at Cameron, LA, on the Gulf of Mexico. Other than oblique references to construction issues, Sempra offered no details, nor a new target date, for the redeveloped underground salt dome cavern.

Top fertilizer manufacturer Terra Industries Inc. has indefinitely suspended all production at its Woodward, OK plant in the near term because of high natural gas costs. The shutdown is due to mechanical repairs and catalyst changes, but Terra will not resume production in the near term because the gas costs haven’t been offset by price increases in nitrogen products and methanol, the company said.

Terra Industries Inc. last Monday said it has mothballed its Donaldsonville, LA, ammonia manufacturing plant indefinitely due to the lofty prices for natural gas, which is used as a feedstock in the production process. The facility, which had an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons, has been out of service since last December.

Terra Industries Inc. on Monday said it has mothballed its Donaldsonville, LA, ammonia manufacturing plant indefinitely due to the lofty prices for natural gas, which is used as a feedstock in the production process. The facility, which had an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons, has been out of service since last December.

El Paso Corp. last week delayed indefinitely reporting its fourth quarter 2003 earnings pending the completion of both an internal and an independent review on the impact of a 41% negative oil and gas reserves revision. The Houston-based company had been scheduled to issue its quarterly statement Thursday.

El Paso Corp. delayed indefinitely reporting its fourth quarter 2003 earnings pending the completion of both an internal and an independent review on the impact of a 41% negative oil and gas reserves revision announced last month. The Houston-based company had been scheduled to issue its quarterly statement Thursday.

As NGI sources had suspected the day before, the cash market couldn’t keep rising indefinitely without visible means of support. Sure enough, eastern prices finally reacted Thursday to the one-two punch of weakening futures and only a modicum of weather-related demand by registering declines that were mostly in the vicinity of a dime but ranged from about a nickel to a little more than 20 cents.

All cash points retreated Wednesday within a range of about anickel to 20 cents, with most declines occupying the middle groundat 8-15 cents. Sources attributed the softening to the screen’sweakness a day earlier, a general dearth of cooling load, anddoubts about production risks from downgraded Tropical Storm Debby.

California regulators have given the green light to continueindefinitely the three-year-old incentive gas buying program atSouthern California Gas Co., dispensing at year-end 1998 with anannual review of the program, which has even drawn praise from theusually critical Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) at theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission. The program reportedly hassaved millions of dollars for SoCalGas’ smallest customers who relyon the utility to buy their supplies. In 1998, SoCalGas reportsearning a $2 million award for its shareholders for the latest12-month operations of its so-called “Gas Cost IncentiveMechanism.” Based on benchmarked market prices if SoCalGas can dosignificantly better than the market average, resulting inquantifiable savings for its merchant customers, part of thosesavings flow back to its shareholders, who in this case are ownersof the SoCal parent, Sempra Energy. Shareholders have earned $16million in rewards through the incentive gas-purchase program overthe past three years, according to SoCalGas.