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FERC last week gave Petal Gas Storage the go-ahead to double thecertificated capacity of its storage facilities in Mississippi to10.4 Bcf. Petal Gas would accomplish this by drilling, leaching anddeveloping a second underground salt dome storage cavern identicalto its existing cavern. The proposed storage cavern would have thesame certificated capacity as the existing cavern (5.2 Bcf), andboth would have a combined actual working gas capacity of 5.8 Bcf.

FERC last week upheld an administrative law judge’s partialinitial decision denying KN Interstate Gas’s (KNI) request to rollin the costs associated with the construction of its Pony ExpressLine and Kansas City Line.

Texas Land Commissioner David Dewhurst last week presented aplan to a special senate committee on electric utilityrestructuring that would allow the land commissioner to convert thestate’s oil and gas earned from public lands into electricity andsell it to Texas schools, state agencies, and local governments.

Fidelity Oil Group of Bismarck, ND, the E&P unit of MDUResources Group Inc., production has grown at an average rate ofmore than 10%/year for the last 10 years while reserves have grownat an average rate of more than 8%/year, net of ongoing production.Gas reserves have increased most significantly, growing to morethan 110 Bcf in January after Fidelity’s acquisition of propertiesin Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. The company targetsboth onshore and offshore properties in many of the major basins.Fidelity operations stretch from Canada through the central U.S.and into the Gulf of Mexico.

The energy industry has begun the “last days of the age of oil,”with a cast of cleaner fuels waiting to take center stage,according to ARCO CEO Mike R. Bowlin.

The energy industry has begun the “last days of the age of oil,”with a cast of cleaner fuels waiting to take center stage,according to ARCO CEO Mike R. Bowlin.

FERC last week gave the go-ahead for a mostly compressionupgrade that would add 315,218 Dth/d to Columbia Gulf Transmission,restoring its system to its original certificated capacity leveland then some.

Summer power price spikes may have hardly triggered a blip onthe gas spot market last year, but that may not be the case in thenear future. With the expected tremendous growth in gas-fired powergeneration, gas prices are on track to be more closely linked withthe price of electricity than the price of oil, according toCoastal Corp. CEO David A. Arledge.

A measure introduced in the New Mexico senate last week was a”good first step” towards opening up the state’s electricityindustry to competition, says the state’s largest utility, althoughit cited certain concerns.