Letting

Because North America’s appetite for natural gas shows no signs of letting up anytime soon, policy makers need to take swift steps to deal with pipeline capacity constraints, liquefied natural gas (LNG) siting problems, production bottlenecks and gas storage concerns, says a new trilateral report by senior energy officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Because North America’s appetite for natural gas shows no signs of letting up anytime soon, policy makers need to take swift steps to deal with pipeline capacity constraints, liquefied natural gas (LNG) siting problems, production bottlenecks and gas storage concerns, says a new trilateral report by senior energy officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

TransCanada PipeLines broke with tradition in letting its power business take the spotlight last year. The company said Tuesday that it raised its dividend by C2 cents/share to C29 cents and reported higher net income for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2003 mainly due to improvements made possible by its power plant acquisitions. Its full-year C$1.66/share earnings from continuing operations beat analysts estimates of C$1.59/share.

TransCanada PipeLines broke with tradition in letting its power business take the spotlight last year. The company said Tuesday that it raised its dividend by C2 cents/share to 29 cents and reported higher net income for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2003 mainly due to improvements made possible by its power plant acquisitions. Its full-year $1.66/share earnings from continuing operations beat analysts estimates of $1.59/share.

Pacific Gas & Electric and Sonat did not extend OFOs beyondTuesday, and MRT is letting its System Protection Warning expirethis morning.

Letting no grass grow under the feet of its newly-created Carolinas empire, Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) got a jump on competitors by shortening both the length and the lead-time of its proposed interstate Palmetto Pipeline project and turning it into an intrastate. The pricetag on the project drops from $175 million to $100 million and it will run 82 miles (instead of 175 miles) along the right-of-way of now-integrated North Carolina Natural Gas to a new power plant being developed by CP&L. It will require no federal or state certification.

The industry’s hunt for natural gas has gone way beyond thesearch for oil and shows no signs of letting up. Gas directeddrilling has held a solid 80% of all U.S. drilling by rotary rigssince mid-July. And last week the number of rotary rigs drillingfor gas leaped to 609 from 579 the week prior, while total rigsrose to 750 from 721, the largest weekly gain since Nov. 28, 1997,according to Baker Hughes. Oil-directed drilling declined duringthe week by one rig to 139.

The industry’s hunt for natural gas has gone way beyond thesearch for oil and shows no signs of letting up. Gas directeddrilling has held a solid 80% of all U.S. drilling by rotary rigssince mid-July. And last week the number of rotary rigs drillingfor gas leaped to 609 from 579 the week prior, while total rigsrose to 750 from 721, the largest weekly gain since Nov. 28, 1997,according to Baker Hughes. Oil-directed drilling declined duringthe week by one rig to 139.