Narrowed

Although Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has narrowed the field of gasline contenders to one — TransCanada — through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) process, the door has reopened to a previously rejected candidate. Producer ConocoPhillips also is still in the hunt with its non-AGIA proposal, and a former governor told NGI that a rethink of the project is in order on a number of fronts.

Although Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has narrowed the field of gasline contenders to one — TransCanada — through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) process, the door has reopened to a previously rejected candidate. Producer ConocoPhillips also is still in the hunt with its non-AGIA proposal, and a former governor told NGI that a rethink of the project is in order on a number of fronts.

As the congressional spotlight on commodities trading and regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grew brighter and hotter last week, it also narrowed its focus as legislators made clear they are almost exclusively interested in natural gas trading, the Amaranth case and the surrounding infrastructure, namely the CFTC, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

As the congressional spotlight on commodities trading and regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grew brighter and hotter Thursday, it also narrowed its focus as legislators made clear they are almost exclusively interested in the natural gas market, the Amaranth case and the surrounding infrastructure, namely the CFTC, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

Pacific Gas & Electric narrowed a systemwide high-inventory OFO issued for Saturday to a customer-specific one Sunday, then allowed it to expire Monday. However, PG&E issued a new systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Tuesday, setting penalties of $1/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

Responding to the pleas of interstate natural gas pipelines, FERC last Wednesday issued a final rule that significantly narrowed the scope of its proposed regulation governing the reporting of damages to pipe and storage systems.

Responding to the pleas of interstate natural gas pipelines, FERC on Wednesday issued a final rule that significantly narrowed the scope of its proposed regulation governing the reporting of damages to pipe systems.

El Paso Corp. narrowed its losses in the final quarter of 2005 on a string of asset sales, and despite lingering effects from last year’s devastating hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the company’s core natural gas pipelines and exploration and production (E&P) groups posted solid earnings.

Charlotte, NC-based Piedmont Natural Gas narrowed its loss this year during the slow summer quarter, reporting a seasonal loss of $8.2 million and ($0.21) diluted loss per share for the fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2004, compared with a $9.7 million loss and a ($0.29) diluted loss per share for the same quarter in 2003 . The company on Friday also announced a two-for-one stock split.