Making

While making clear the administration would not be engaging inany market-rigging through price ceilings or floors, EnergySecretary Bill Richardson said it nevertheless was working onfurther measures to aid the depressed oil and gas industry.

The leadership of the Gas Industry Standards Board’s (GISB) topdecision-making committee has been in the hands of the pipelinesand producers for a number of years, but the gavel has been passedto service companies and distributors in 1999. This changing of theguard has left some feeling uneasy as they wonder whether a radicalchange in direction is in store for the standards-setting group inthe year ahead.

The leadership of the Gas Industry Standards Board’s (GISB) topdecision-making committee has been in the hands of the pipelinesand producers for a number of years, but the gavel has been passedto service companies and distributors in 1999. This changing of theguard has left some feeling uneasy as they wonder whether a radicalchange in direction is in store for the standards-setting group inthe year ahead.

Sumas was making waves in the gas market earlier in the week bybeing the first point to exceed $3 pricing in this winter season.But it was tsunami time Friday as the $3 level was left way behind.How does paying $25/Mcf for Canadian supplies grab you?

Only five of a possible 19 marketers are making deliveries toabout 16,000 out of 1.4 million customers of Atlanta Gas Light thismonth, but it’s a start in the LDC’s state-approved plan to workits way out of the regulated merchant business.

Scana Energy Marketing, one of only five marketers making thecut for the opening of the Georgia natural gas market Nov. 1, isclaiming the lion’s share of the 16,000 total customers signed upby the Oct. 26 deadline for initial deliveries.

Canadians are wasting no time making sure production capacitykeeps up with increases in demand for natural gas that pipelineprojects are expected to generate over the next two years,according to an annual deliverability survey released last week bythe Canadian Energy Research Institute. Not even this year’s 30%drop in oil prices hurt producer revenues and budgets enough toslow down gas development.

Canadians are wasting no time making sure production capacitykeeps up with increases in demand for natural gas that pipelineprojects are expected to generate over the next two years,according to an annual deliverability survey released last week bythe Canadian Energy Research Institute. Not even this year’s 30%drop in oil prices hurt producer revenues and budgets enough toslow down gas development.

The prospect for more liquid energy markets with stepped-upintra-day deal-making is driving development of a second merchantunderground natural gas storage facility in northern Californiawith proximity to Pacific Gas and Electric’s backbone transmissionsystem (Line 401), according to the Sacramento-based manager ofWestern Hub Properties LLC.