Negotiated

The City of Morgantown, WV, and Northeast Natural Energy (NNE) appear to be on a collision course, with the city preparing to pass an ordinance Tuesday night that would ban hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking), and the company in turn vowing to sue the city if it tries to interfere with its two wells.

Elected officials from Monongalia County, WV, will meet their counterparts from the cities of Morgantown and Westover for a work session Wednesday to discuss Morgantown’s proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

Spectra Energy Corp. has approval from the National Energy Board (NEB) to enact a new three-year negotiated toll settlement that defines the economic factors and provisions for establishing tolls and maintains service standards for its British Columbia (BC) Pipeline system in Western Canada.

FERC on Thursday established a new inflationary adjustment, or price index formula, that will increase the ceiling levels on rates for pipelines carrying crude oil and petroleum products, including natural gas liquids (RM10-25).

A coalition of 151 North Texas cities known as the Atmos Cities Steering Committee (ACSC) negotiated an agreement with the Mid-Tex Division of Atmos Energy Corp. that will reduce that company’s latest residential rate increase request by more than 80% — from a proposed $52 million to $10 million. The group said last week it has recommended approval of the settlement to its members.

A coalition of 151 North Texas cities known as the Atmos Cities Steering Committee (ACSC) negotiated an agreement with the Mid-Tex Division of Atmos Energy Corp. that will reduce that company’s latest residential rate increase request by more than 80% — from a proposed $52 million to $10 million. The group said Monday it has recommended approval of the settlement to its members.

The Bush administration’s announcement that it negotiated new deals with five major producers remedying the flawed 1998 and 1999 Gulf of Mexico leases was not enough to allay the concerns of House lawmakers (see Daily GPI, Dec. 15).

A House spending bill amendment would “penalize scores” of oil and natural gas producers who hold royalty-free leases that were negotiated in 1998 and 1999 by barring them from bidding on new Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leases in 2007, said the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Monday.

The Republican-led House on Wednesday passed by a slim margin a negotiated massive spending bill that only slightly raises funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in fiscal year 2006.