Owned

El Paso Natural Gas Co. (EPNG), owned by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Kinder Morgan Inc., has concluded a binding open season for a maximum of 145,000 Dth/d of available capacity on its South Mainline interstate natural gas transmission system. The approximately 750-mile South Mainline system extends from the Waha Hub in the Permian Basin of West Texas to California and serves markets in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico. El Paso Electric Co., which is not affiliated with with the pipeline or its owners, has contracted with EPNG for an incremental 90,000 Dth/d of hourly firm capacity at maximum recourse rates under a 20-year term. El Paso Electric is currently served by EPNG. The new agreement will accommodate existing and planned additions to local generation by the utility. Expected in-service of the new capacity is Jan. 1, 2014.

Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties in relation to the April 2010 deepwater Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties in relation to the April 2010 deepwater Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) SA, Argentina’s newly state-owned energy company, announced Friday that it had signed a two-year, $1.5 billion agreement with Bridas Corp. to explore and drill for oil in two of the country’s shale plays.

The U.S. Commerce Department has granted Valero Energy Corp. a one-year authorization to ship crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to a company-owned refinery in Quebec, Canada.

Authorities Tuesday said no one was killed after a 20-inch diameter transmission line owned by NiSource Inc. exploded just after midday near its Columbia Gas Transmission Lanham Compressor Station near Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

Authorities Tuesday said no one was killed killed after a 20-inch diameter transmission line owned by NiSource Inc. exploded just after midday near its Columbia Gas Transmission Lanham Compressor Station near Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) cut rates for the three major investor-owned natural gas utilities in the state, responding to the continuing low wholesale prices for gas. The new rates take effect Thursday. Portland, OR-based NW Natural, which separately received a small general rate hike, its first in 10 years (see Daily GPI, Oct. 31), will cut its rates by 6.9%, or about $4.36/month for a typical residential customer. Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities customers will see rates drop 7.7%, or on average about $4.78/month for residential customers. MDU Resources Group’s Kennewick, WA-based Cascade Natural Gas Corp. rates were cut 17.3%, or a decrease on average of $9.79/month for a residential customer. A purchased gas adjustment allows the PUC to have the gas utilities adjust their rates up or down annually to reflect changes in the average price of gas supplies the utilities purchase on the interstate market.

A Philadelphia councilman wants Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), which is the nation’s largest municipally owned natural gas utility, to use natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale instead of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) gas received via pipeline.