Officials

Officials with Distrigas of Massachusetts LLC and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Tuesday that an order banning liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers into Boston Harbor has been rescinded effective immediately, enabling the company to receive shipments once again at its Everett, MA, terminal.

It is a case of the missing e-mail alert that was being debated in local California news media Tuesday regarding whether or not the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility was alerted by the FBI last week concerning the potential threat to U.S. natural gas supplies and/or infrastructure as an outgrowth of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. The FBI said they sent an e-mail; Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. in Los Angeles said it never received it.

Top energy regulators and industry officials debated the causes of last year’s record high gas prices in California during a House subcommittee hearing last week that featured a thorough review of the El Paso market manipulation case and all the issues contributing to the serious natural gas market malfunction. FERC Chairman Pat Wood said he does not see a need for legislative action. He believes last year’s high gas prices were the result mainly of multiple supply and demand factors and a mismatch between interstate and California intrastate pipeline capacity, which state LDCs and regulators are in the process of correcting.

New England natural gas officials and key distributors predict that the region will have ample gas supplies to meet this winter’s heating demand, even if the existing embargo on liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers into Boston Harbor should remain in effect for a prolonged period.

Northern Illinois Gas Co. (Nicor Gas) has agreed to pay nearly $4.1 million for its role in mercury leaks and improper disposal over a 10-year period of some of its gas regulators that were replaced by the utility in its service area. The agreement, approved by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul P. Biebel, was reached on Wednesday between Nicor Gas and the Illinois attorney general and the state’s attorneys of Cook, DuPage and Will counties.

Northern Illinois Gas Co. (Nicor Gas) has agreed to pay nearly $4.1 million for its role in mercury leaks and improper disposal over a 10-year period of some of its gas regulators that were replaced by the utility in its service area. The agreement, approved by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul P. Biebel, was reached on Wednesday between Nicor Gas and the Illinois attorney general and the state’s attorneys of Cook, DuPage and Will counties.

Wholesale power prices helped propel Southern Co.’s earnings up 5% in the second quarter, and company officials said the Southeast’s largest utility remains on target to meet its financial and operational goals for the year. Earnings were $270 million, or 40 cents a share, at the top of the analysts’ predictions for the quarter, up from $256 million, or 39 cents a share for the same period of 2000. Operations earnings from the quarter excluded Mirant, the company that completed its spin off to Southern’s shareholders April 2 (see NGI, Feb. 26).

In yet another irony to the California energy foibles, while state officials are scrambling to expand natural gas transmission and storage capabilities in the state, one of Southern California Gas Co.’s most urban-based underground storage facilities is under siege from opponents of a massive coastal mixed-use residential/commercial development between Marina del Rey, CA, and a 50-year-old gas storage operation.

In yet another irony to the California energy foibles, while state officials are scrambling to expand natural gas transmission and storage capabilities in the state, one of Southern California Gas Co.’s most urban-based underground storage facilities is under siege from opponents of a massive coastal mixed-use residential/commercial development between Marina del Rey, CA, and a 50-year-old gas storage operation.