Network

While California’s utility watchdog, The Utility Reform Network, called PG&E’s $800 million rate cut last week for electric utility customers “a long way from fair,” utility customers still will be looking their first rate cut since before the 2000-2001 electricity crisis.

The Utility Reform Network (TURN), California’s largest utility watchdog group, Friday reached beyond U.S. borders to side with Bolivians revolting against their government, partially in protest to a project designed to export LNG to North America.

The development of a new technology for detecting problems in the nation’s 2-million-mile underground pipeline network was awarded a grant Friday by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX, and a coalition of researchers and energy companies, including Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co., the largest U. S. natural gas distributor.

In denying a natural gas producer’s plea for FERC to reassert jurisdiction over a network of gathering facilities in the Appalachian region, the Commission ruled last week the Virginia-based company failed to show that Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. and its gathering affiliate, Columbia Natural Resources Inc. (CNR), had acted “in concert” to manipulate gathering rates and thwart competitive transportation service.

In denying a natural gas producer’s plea for FERC to reassert jurisdiction over a network of gathering facilities in the Appalachian region, the Commission ruled the Virginia-based company failed to show that Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. and its gathering affiliate, Columbia Natural Resources Inc. (CNR), had acted “in concert” to manipulate gathering rates and thwart competitive transportation service.

Dynegy Inc. has closed the sale of its U.S. communications business, including a high-capacity broadband network spanning more than 16,000 miles with access points in 44 U.S. cities, to an affiliate of 360networks Corp. Financial terms of the deal, first announced in late March, were not disclosed. CEO Bruce A. Williamson said the sale finalizes Dynegy’s exit from communications. “The Dynegy you see now — and into the future — is one built around its core energy businesses, which include power generation, natural gas liquids and regulated energy delivery.”

El Paso Energy Partners, L.P. (EPN) announced last Wednesday that it will build and operate a new 16-inch pipeline to gather natural gas production from the Red Hawk field located in the Garden Banks area of the central Deepwater Trend of the Gulf of Mexico.

El Paso Energy Partners, L.P. (EPN) announced Wednesday that it will build and operate a new 16-inch pipeline to gather natural gas production from the Red Hawk field located in the Garden Banks area of the central Deepwater Trend of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said that despite a four-month, court-ordered computer network shutdown, the government agency has distributed more than $318 million to 32 states during the first six months of 2002. Leading the pack for MMS distributions received so far this year was Wyoming with $164.7 million, New Mexico $88.5 million, Colorado $16.4 million and Utah with $11.1 million. The money represents the states’ cumulative share of revenues collected for mineral production on federal lands located within their borders and from federal offshore oil and gas tracts adjacent to their shores. “This year’s halfway total is less than last year’s record $656 million, but is close to the 2000 figure of $362 million,” said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. “The numbers largely reflect a recent decline in prices of crude oil and natural gas.”