Multiple

Multiple fires were reported last Tuesday afternoon in BattleCreek, MI, as an “incident” at Semco’s Battle Creek gas systemresulted in two destroyed homes and extensive residential damage.Two people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation, Semcosaid. One report said the incident occurred when a high-pressureline was mistakenly connected to a low-pressure residential line.

An epic battle with multiple fronts is shaping up in Canada overan appeal by the Northwest Territories government for the NationalEnergy Board to take jurisdiction over the Nova pipeline grid awayfrom Alberta.

An epic battle with multiple fronts is shaping up in Canada over an appeal by the Northwest Territories government for the National Energy Board to take jurisdiction over the Nova pipeline grid away from Alberta.

Despite the recent failure of multiple pipeline expansions intonorthern Illinois and Wisconsin, CMS Energy, WICOR and Viking Gashave come up with another project they hope will finally wrest someof the marketplace from ANR Pipeline’s monopoly grip. The projectappears to have what its predecessors did not: a confirmed market.

The two major electronic natural gas trading systems havestarted a price war, slashing transaction fees to zero at multiplelocations for the month of September. In late August, Altra EnergyTechnologies announced a “Streamline Inventory Reduction Sale,”reducing prices to 0.001 cent/MMBtu at all its major Louisiana andTexas locations and dropping fees to zero at all of its othertrading points. Soon after, QuickTrade countered by dropping feesto 0.001 cent/MMBtu for day trades at major Louisiana an Texaspoints and Chicago, and cutting costs to zero for day trades at theColumbia Gas pool and the Henry Hub.

The recent tightening of Henry Hub-New York basis can beattributed to a number of factors: the large amounts of capacitybeing turned back to the pipelines, high inventory levels,competitive residual fuel oil prices and new liquefied natural gasprojects, according to a prominent energy trader.

While the natural gas industry generally believes the multiplepipeline projects planned for the Midwest and New England areoverkill, Roger Gale of the Washington International Energy Groupwould disagree.