Loosening

Deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) remains in limbo, but federal officials appear to be loosening their hold on permitting shallow-water projects, according to some offshore producers.

Pacific Gas & Electric extended a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO into its third day Friday, but after loosening the tolerance for positive daily imbalances from 5% to 16% Thursday, it tightened the tolerance to 11% for Friday.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice declared last Wednesday in effect through Friday and Saturday, loosening the negative imbalance tolerance from 15% to 20% for those two days, before ending the notice Sunday.

In the wake of last year’s oil bust, energy industry lenders arestill keeping a tighter grip on their money. However indicationsare some banks and investors are starting again to look for placesto put capital in the energy patch.