Options

Pointing to three offshore proposals as better options, the newly elected mayor of Long Beach, CA, reiterated his opposition to siting a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in his city’s harbor in a published interview with the nonprofit, Alliance to Save Energy. He predicted the city council would consider the proposed LNG port site before the end of the year.

Pointing to three offshore proposals as better options, the newly elected mayor of Long Beach, CA, reiterated his opposition to siting a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in his city’s harbor in a published interview with the nonprofit, Alliance to Save Energy. He predicted the city council would consider the proposed LNG port site before the end of the year.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is considering other “strategic options” for its Bear Head liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal planned for Cape Breton Island near Point Tupper, NS, after a deadline to sell the proposed terminal expired on Thursday. Anadarko had agreed to sell the subsidiary to private equity firm U.S. Venture Energy for $125 million (see Daily GPI, July 11).

In the absence of a real comprehensive national energy policy, and with important policy decisions in California and British Columbia limiting options, the West will become even more dependent on natural gas in the next 10 years, according to Eric Markell, senior vice president at Puget Sound Energy (PSE). He thinks the region has no other choice.

The New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced Tuesday that a record 10,000 natural gas calendar spread options contracts were traded on Dec. 15, surpassing the previous record of 6,600 contracts on Oct. 15, 2004. “This record is a further indication that the energy industry continues to see the exchange as a reliable source of risk management, liquidity, and price transparency,” said James E. Newsome, president of Nymex.

Prompt month natural gas futures pushed through the psychological $10 level Wednesday for the first time in regular session trading since Feb. 25, 2003 with a trade at $10.02, wiping out September 2005’s previous prompt month high of $9.91 in the process. September natural gas went on to settle 30.1 cents higher on the day at $9.984, the highest prompt month settle for natural gas on the books.

Reuben Jeffery III was sworn Monday as the new chairman and a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates commodity futures and options on U.S. exchanges. The appointment came two days after Joseph Kelliher officially became chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the other major D.C. regulatory body charged with oversight of the energy industry (see related story).

A week after the June natural gas futures contract flirted with breaking below the $6.00 mark, the July contract in Thursday trading was able to poke its head above the psychological $7.00 level before coming back to settle at $6.819, up 3 cents for the day.

A total of 426,000 NYSEG and Rochester Gas & Electric (RG&E) electricity customers made an electricity supply choice during an October-through-December enrollment period, the two Energy East Corp. subsidiaries said last Monday, with the bulk of the customers picking power supply plans sponsored by NYSEG and RG&E.