Lines

CenterPoint Energy officials are investigating what caused one of the company’s gas lines to explode Thursday morning around 8 a.m. in Minneapolis, MN. While the explosion and resulting fireball could be seen for miles, no injuries were reported as of Thursday afternoon and repair work was under way.

While unconventional energy plays require more water than their conventional counterparts, it’s the rapid growth of those new plays that is shining a spotlight on how the oil and gas industries use water, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor told attendees at CERAWeek 2011 in Houston last week.

Even though water and sewer lines run parallel to the natural gas transmission pipeline that ruptured last September in San Bruno, CA, city officials, including the fire chief, were generally unaware of the gas line before the incident, according to testimony Wednesday in the second of three days of fact-gathering hearings in Washington, DC, by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has named Charmaine Jackson, a communications professional, as the PRC’s Native American Liaison, responsible for keeping open lines of communication between the regulators and all Indian nations, tribes and pueblos in the state. Jackson will advise the five-member elected regulatory commission on all Native American matters and is expected “to establish and maintain mutual understanding and good relations.” A communications/journalism graduate from the University of New Mexico, Jackson previously served as the public information officer for the Navajo Nation’s president and vice president (2002-04). She also served as the information officer for the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department (2004-06). Jackson was the first Native American news reporter to broadcast in the Four Corners region of the state with an NBC-TV network affiliate, KOBF-TV, in Farmington, NM. One of the five current PRC members, Theresa Becenti-Aguilar, previously served the commission in the same liaison position.

Units of Enterprise Products Partners LP have struck 10-year agreements to provide midstream services for liquids-rich gas and crude oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the partnership said Monday.

David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy, and Timothy J. Probert, president of Halliburton’s Global Business Lines, have been elected to El Paso Corp.’s board of directors. Crane, 50, will serve on the governance and nominating committee of El Paso’s board. Crane earned a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School. Probert, 58, will serve on the health, safety and environmental committee of the board. He received his bachelor of science degree in geology and geography from the University of London in 1972 and is a member of the corporate advisory board of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Pipeline customers who failed to get lower rates on Panhandle Eastern Pipe Lines’ Southwest Gas Storage service by filing their own Natural Gas Act (NGA) Section 5 complaint [RP07-34] several years ago, nevertheless may have laid the groundwork and inspired the strategy for a FERC surprise action last week that calls for formal investigations of three pipelines for possible over-recovery in their rates.

Pipeline customers who failed to get lower rates on Panhandle Eastern Pipe Lines’ Southwest Gas Storage service by filing their own Natural Gas Act (NGA) Section 5 complaint [RP07-34] several years ago, nevertheless may have laid the groundwork and inspired the strategy for FERC’s surprise action last week, calling for formal investigations of three pipelines for possible over-recovery in their rates (see related story).

Natural gas pipeline construction hit a 10-year high in 2008, led by “massive” system additions in the Southwest and Gulf of Mexico, as construction of delivery lines raced to keep up with the unprecedented expansion of natural gas reserves and production in new shale plays across the country, as well as new import and storage locations.