Market

Taking its initial plunge into the Canadian Midstream market,Duke Energy announced last week its subsidiary, Duke EnergyServices Canada Ltd., acquired gas gathering and processing assetsfrom Calgary-based Cometra Energy. Financial terms were notdisclosed.

Retail unbundling in the California natural gas market is”currently being undermined” by Dynegy Marketing and Trade’swithholding of firm transportation capacity on El Paso Natural Gas,the head of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) saidThursday. As a remedy, CPUC President Richard A. Bilas called onFERC to implement regulations prohibiting the “hoarding” ofpipeline capacity and to investigate allegations of anticompetitiveconduct, which he contends was prevalent in the Dynegy-El Pasocontract arrangement.

Taking its initial plunge into the Canadian Midstream market, Duke Energy announced Wednesday its subsidiary, Duke Energy Services Canada Ltd., acquired gas gathering and processing assets from Calgary-based Cometra Energy. Financial terms were not disclosed.

When assessing the market of an acquisition target, allcustomers are not equal, Columbia Energy Group Chairman Oliver G.Richard told a merger and acquisition symposium this week.

The “catastrophic” impact of anemic crude oil prices on domesticoil and gas producers requires Congress and the Clintonadministration to take “extraordinary” measures to revive an”industry that is on its knees,” lawmakers on the Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee said Thursday.

Getting no signals from the futures trading pit, thelate-January cash market saw mild softening Tuesday. With snowyconditions covering the northwestern quadrant of the U.S., Westernpoints again tended to be flat to off no more than a penny or two.However, they were joined in small dips by several Gulf Coast andMidcontinent pipes, and Michigan citygates even managed to eke outmodest gains.

Increasing competitive pressure inside traditional monopolyutility market territories has triggered somewhat of a revival ofinvestment diversification by gas and electric utilities. But theseinvestments are not what they’re cracked up to be, according toenergy consulting firm Metzler Services, a subsidiary of Metzler&amp Associates. Non-core investments, including internationalventures, did not payoff over the year ended last September,Metzler calculated in its third quarter Flashreport, released lastweek.

Market Hub Partners LP (MHP) subsidiary NE Hub Partners LP hasreached an agreement with CNG Transmission and North Penn Gas onthe development of NE Hub’s 5-6 Bcf Tioga Gas Storage Project innorth central Pennsylvania

Market Hub Partners LP (MHP) subsidiary NE Hub Partners LP has reached an agreement with CNG Transmission and North Penn Gas on the development of NE Hub’s 5-6 Bcf Tioga Gas Storage Project in north central Pennsylvania.