Infrastructure

Having locked up reserves and pre-pay natural gas deals in the past two years, the infrastructure financing arm for a dozen Southern California municipal utilities is assessing its member utilities to determine if their tanks are full, or they still want to buy some peace of mind in terms of future fuel supplies for generating electricity in the southern half of the state. The assessment will come the first half of next year.

State regulators, utilities and regional transmission organizations have expressed overall support for FERC’s proposed approval of eight critical infrastructure protection (CIP) reliability standards, but they cited some concerns with specific language in the standards.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has looked at the markets for gas, producing properties and gas infrastructure and determined it’s a good time to unload some assets and scale back drilling and production plans, particularly in light of abundant supply and low prices.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has looked at the markets for gas, producing properties and gas infrastructure and determined it’s a good time to unload some assets and scale back drilling and production plans.

Montana regulators had little choice but to reject a 15-month-old effort by Australia’s Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) to buy South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy, and the state’s largest private-sector utility now is poised to do just fine on its own, the state’s chief regulator told NGI last week.

Montana regulators had little choice but to reject a 15-month-old effort by Australian-based Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) to buy South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy, and the state’s largest private-sector utility now is poised to do just fine on its own, the state’s chief regulator told NGI Wednesday.

A new proposal by Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) has prompted the staff at the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) to recommend that the five regulators reopen the utility’s proposed acquisition of South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy. In May the PSC voted 5-0 to reject the original BBI-NorthWestern marriage proposal (see Daily GPI, May 24).

Already problematic at the state regulatory level, NorthWestern Energy’s pending $2.2 billion sale to Australian-based Babcock & Brown Infrastructure (BBI) faced a new potential obstacle last Friday from a proposed state law to create a public power entity to potentially take over the utility’s Montana operations if the Public Service Commission (PSC) turns down the BBI purchase later this year. The utility holding company had no immediate reaction to the new state Senate bill (SB 558).

While the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure is being built on the back of long-term contracts, Excelerate Energy LP has begun to see its merchant model bear fruit as cargo fungibility and an LNG spot market continue to develop.