Manage

Tenaska Capital Management LLC (TCM) has formed Houston-based Voyager Midstream LLC to develop, acquire and manage midstream gas assets. The company intends to seek acquisition opportunities in some of the hot producing regions as well as develop its own market-area gas storage projects.

With active hedging to manage its 23,000 MW fleet of independent electric generation plants, Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc. views this summer and long-term with a “fundamentally bullish” attitude toward natural gas prices, CEO David Crane said last Thursday during a conference call with financial analysts.

With active hedging to manage its 23,000 MW fleet of independent electric generation plants, Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc. views this summer and long-term with a “fundamentally bullish” attitude toward natural gas prices, CEO David Crane said Thursday during a conference call with financial analysts.

While the U.S. oil and gas sector makes extensive use of derivatives to manage commodity price risk, and in some cases make a speculative buck, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said producer hedging practices have little impact on corporate credit ratings. This is mainly due to the fact that most companies hedge production only as far out as two years or so, and the ratings agency takes a longer-term view when assessing credit.

While the U.S. oil and gas sector makes extensive use of derivatives to manage commodity price risk, and in some cases make a speculative buck, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said producer hedging practices have little impact on corporate credit ratings. This is mainly due to the fact that most companies hedge production only as far out as two years or so, and the ratings agency takes a longer-term view when assessing credit.

To better manage natural gas prices and volume risks, state regulators should encourage gas utilities to use long-term natural gas contracts for transportation, storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG) services, and should consider requiring utilities to develop long-term strategies for pipeline capacity, gas storage and gas supply acquisitions in the “10-plus year range,” a joint task force of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) recommends in a new report.

Seeking to help customers manage much higher natural gas utility bills this winter, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Tuesday filed with the California Public Utilities Commission to expand its program for qualifying low-income customers and to expand eligibility for a monthly bill-levelizing programs. The utility wants to make the expanded programs available as of Nov. 1, the start of the traditional heating season.

In the continuing western crusade to manage skyrocketing wholesale natural gas prices, the Chairman of the California Energy Commission (CEC), Joe Desmond, called the state’s supplies and infrastructure adequate for the coming winter, while warning that prices will continue at their current historic high levels through the winter and competition for natural gas will continue to become more intense on a national level. Desmond made these observations as part of a press briefing he called Tuesday in Sacramento.

A group calling itself the Mirant Shareholder Rights Group released several statements last week, blasting bankrupt Mirant’s board and management team for deliberately undervaluing the company’s assets and paying excessive executive compensation despite a “track record of failures.”