Industrial

Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc. announced Monday it has closed a $4 million acquisition of 300 commercial/industrial (C/I) natural gas customer accounts from Houston Energy Services Co. (HESCO). The customers have accounts in five states — California, Florida, Nevada, Kentucky and Texas — with an estimated collective load of 12 Bcf/year, effectively tripling Commerce’s natural gas sales volumes.

The return of industrial demand after a weekend hiatus and modest increases in western cooling load produced a mixed cash market Monday that was dominated by gains of 2-3 cents to a little more than a quarter. Along with several flat points, Monday’s minority losses ran as high as a little more than a quarter.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) has called on Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to focus his attention on expanding natural gas development in both onshore and offshore lands.

A group of natural gas producers, municipal gas distributors and industrial customers has called on FERC to revise its final rule reforming the agency’s storage pricing policies to include more protections for customers. Separately the American Gas Association (AGA), which represents local distribution companies (LDCs), asked the agency to consider a less liberal storage policy in the rule.

South Jersey Gas (SJG), which serves more than 322,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout New Jersey, on Thursday filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to decrease its gas supply service rate effective Oct. 1. On average, residential bills would decrease 3.8% or about $6.48/month. “We know the unusually high cost of energy last winter presented a challenge to many of our customers,” said CEO Edward J. Graham. “Since last winter natural gas prices have gradually decreased, and our filing is based on projections that natural gas prices will be lower during the upcoming winter than they were last year. In addition, we’re aggressively seeking opportunities to reduce gas costs by restructuring our gas supply portfolio, while continuing to provide high quality gas service,” Graham added.

Texas Gas Transmission came out on top of the Mastiogale pipeline company customer satisfaction ranking, which was based on interviews with industrial customers, local distribution companies, independent power producers, gas and oil producers and marketing companies. Transportation reliability, contract security and scheduling accuracy were the key criteria customers used to evaluate the quality of pipeline service, according to the survey.

The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved an agreement requiring Southern Missouri Gas Co., which serves about 7,250 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the state, to have a gas supply plan in place before next winter with 55% of its supply locked in under fixed prices or hedged against market exposure.

Many points were close to flat Monday in a mixed market that leaned mostly to the downside. The return of industrial load from a weekend slump and what is suspected to be thriving demand for early storage refills were pitted against mild weather fundamentals and the previous Friday’s 22.9-cent screen dive as primary cash trading influences.

An alliance of five CEOs from major natural gas production companies, industrial gas consumers and gas distributors urged the American public, U.S. Congress and the Bush administration Tuesday to open up more public land in the United States to natural gas drilling and reduce the backlog of gas drilling permit applications at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).