Maintained

Back in 2003, wind power advocates maintained that if more turbines were planted on U.S. soil, fewer liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals would need to be sited on U.S. shores. An additional 100,000 MW of wind power in the next decade could supplant the need for LNG imports, wind backers said.

On a day devoted to cross examination of prosecution witnesses in the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling, two of the company’s top executives maintained Skilling and others lied repeatedly to cover up financial shenanigans within some of the business units.

Tennessee Gas maintained an operational flow order for Wednesday due to nominations in excess of available capacity in Zone 0 and at Niagara. It placed restrictions on deliveries to Station 40 and at its Niagara River Meter. Tennessee also said it will not accept any increases pathed through MLV 528, excluding the header on the Bluewater system and the TTT line 523M-2300 from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198. It restricted flow through Station 834. For details see its pipeline bulletin board. Tennessee also confirmed leaks on its 26-inch diameter pipeline at Ship Shoal 157 and Ship Shoal 144. Divers are assessing the damage. Its mainline valve 528 remains shut in due to water at the Port Sulphur Compressor Station (Station 527). It also incurred damage in the South Timbalier area on several lines (524J-100, 524J-600, and 524J-800) and has leaks on the 524C-100 line and the 524C-600 line. Tennessee said it has survey boats inspecting the West Delta, South Pass, and Main Pass areas. It determined that the meters on the Blue Water Header (from Vermillion 245 to Ship Shoal 198) as well as the TTT line 523M-2300 (from Eugene Island 365 to Ship Shoal 198) are available and can begin flowing. The east leg of the Blue Water system remains shut-in. Therefore, gas that would typically be processed at the Yscloskey processing plant will now be flowing on the Blue Water header in a westerly direction and will require processing at the Blue Water Plant. Producers flowing on this portion of the Blue Water system with a hydrocarbon dew point greater than 20 degrees must sign a processing agreement with the Blue Water plant immediately.

Jeffrey Skilling, the brash, tell-it-like-it-is former CEO of Enron Corp. who has consistently maintained that he did nothing wrong during his 11-year tenure at the company, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to more than three dozen criminal counts in a Houston courtroom. After posting a bond of $5 million in cash, Skilling was freed pending a court appearance scheduled for March 11.

Kerr-McGee Corp. on Wednesday trimmed its third quarter oil and gas production outlook but maintained its full-year guidance after running into problems in the Gulf of Mexico. The independent also warned that a wildcat well offshore still being developed could drop quarterly earnings 15 cents if it’s dry.

The cash market maintained Tuesday the generally somber mood that has prevailed since last week’s terrorist attacks, although sources continued to report small progress here and there towards a return to “normal” trading. Bullish factors were in scant supply, so prices softened at virtually all points except at the PG&E citygate.

The swing market maintained an upward track Wednesday, butmomentum slowed with increases of a dime or less at most points.Sources reported little change from Tuesday in October numbers asemphasis began shifting more toward bidweek.

While ANR Pipeline has maintained all along that competitors to its Wisconsin system expansion – the Guardian and Horizon pipelines – are very bad indeed, it doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion.

Prices for the concluding weekend of February maintained thesoftening trend that had started earlier in the week, ranging fromflat to a little over a dime lower. And although swing gas tradedFriday for today’s flow only was flat at a few points, most sourcesagreed that the initial March aftermarket was trending downwardoverall from both bidweek indexes and weekend levels.