Less

CMP Natural Gas (CMPNG) got less than it hoped for out of a recent Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) decision which allowed the LDC to serve both a 540 MW power plant in Westbrook, ME and an electric municipality in Gorham ME, but not general customers in Westbrook. The decision was passed down earlier this month. CMPNG is a joint venture between Energy East and Central Maine Power Group.

Average on-site energy consumption per household dropped by 27%between 1978 and 1997 while the number of U.S. households increasedby 33%, resulting in no change in total on-site residential energyconsumption over that 20-year period, according to a report fromthe Energy Information Administration (EIA). If the amount ofprimary energy required to generate and transmit the electricityconsumed by households is considered, then the decline inper-household energy consumption is only 16% because electricity’sshare of total household energy consumption increased between 1978and 1997.

It was a mostly softer swing market Monday, but with very littleconsistency in price movement. New quotes ranged from down around20 cents at Northeast citygates, which tended to see last week’sbiggest increases, to 2-5 cents higher in California, where alow-inventory OFO by PG&E helped boost demand. Other points inbetween were flat to down more than a nickel, with most of thedrops being in the vicinity of a nickel.

While wellhead prices will be 40% stronger than last winter,high levels of storage and gas imports will keep them under $3 forthe better part of the heating season, the Energy InformationAdministration said in its October Short-Term Energy Outlook. Thereport was published last week.

While wellhead prices will be 40% stronger than last winter,high levels of storage and gas imports will keep them under $3 forthe better part of the heating season, the Energy InformationAdministration said in its October Short-Term Energy Outlook. Thereport was published yesterday.

Less than two months after FERC approved its Medicine BowLateral, Wyoming Interstate Co. Ltd. (WIC) last week was back atthe Commission seeking a second-phase expansion of the line to add120 MDth/d of capacity. WIC also is laying the groundwork for athird expansion to further meet its contractual commitments withproducers tapping into the prolific coal-bed methane (CBM) reservesin the Power River Basin in Wyoming.

Swing prices continued their downhill slide Friday, succumbingto the normal drop in weekend demand, a softer screen and lack offresh storm news. Except for Midwest citygates, where a warmingtrend was developing, virtually all eastern points fell by a dimeor more. Waha and the Permian Basin also experienced dime-plusdeclines, but other western points tended to fall only a nickel orso. Sources attributed the West’s relative firmness to heavy airconditioning and agricultural load in California and other states.

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In less than two months, BP Amoco Canada succeeded in unloadingall of its crude oil producing properties in Canada in an effort tolower costs and focus on natural gas, gas liquids andpetrochemicals. The company said last week it signed agreements tosell its heavy oil operations to Canadian Natural Resources andPenn West Petroleum for C$1.6 billion.