Issuing

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Tuesday issued a policy statement basically reaffirming its process for individually issuing jurisdictional waivers or “no-action letters” for exchanges located in other countries and subject to regulation in those countries and which allow access to their electronic trading systems in the U.S. The statement essentially supports the position of the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) over that of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), and adds some strictures on information sharing with and among regulators.

After issuing late Tuesday a customer-specific high-inventory OFO for Wednesday, Pacific Gas & Electric expanded it into a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday. The systemwide OFO carries penalties of $1/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

After starting last week by issuing a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO, Pacific Gas & Electric ended the week with another one. The OFO declared for Saturday set penalties of $1/Dth for deliveries into its system exceeding a 5% tolerance for daily positive imbalances. PG&E’s neighbor to the south, Southern California Gas, extended its own high-linepack OFO that was implemented Wednesday through at least a fourth day Saturday.

Without actually issuing a Type 6 OFO, Southern Natural Gas said Friday that based on current receipts and projected deliveries, one was “too close to call” for long imbalances Saturday and Sunday. It noted that its tariff “provides that a Type 6 OFO can be implemented on four hours notice or less depending on the situation.”

In issuing its updated March-April weather outlook Wednesday morning, MDA EarthSat Energy Weather said temperatures will be vary fairly widely over different regions of the United States..

FERC is scheduled to take action with respect to its natural gas storage policy at this week’s agency meeting, possibly issuing a “new test” for determining whether a storage developer should be granted market-based rates for its facility, according to an industry source.

Echoing a price shock warning that many utilities — electric and gas — were issuing across the country last week, Syracuse, NY-based Niagara Mohawk said higher commodity prices could result in its natural gas customers seeing a 35% increase in heating bills this winter.

Florida Power & Light Co. (FP&L) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for firm capacity and up to 3,900 MW of power with commencement of deliveries beginning June 1, 2009.

Citing Florida forecasts of 90-degree-plus temperatures, Florida Gas Transmission told market-area customers it was issuing an Overage Alert Day notice Monday at 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.