Partial

Quelling previous optimism for at least a partial return of its idled nuclear generating plant this summer, Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) officials Thursday said the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Songs), which has been shut down since January for repairs of flawed tubing, will not resume operations this summer. As a result, more natural gas-fired generation from old coastal plants and other measures will take up the slack.

Staging a partial rebound from Friday’s 17.8-cent drop, October natural gas futures following the long Labor Day weekend gained back 6.6 cents to close Tuesday’s regular session at $3.938. The November contract enjoyed much the same ride by moving 5.3 cents higher to $4.043 following Friday’s 17.6-cent drubbing.

Dominion Cove Point LNG LP (DCP) and its firm import shippers asked FERC to approve by Wednesday an interim partial settlement that calls for Shell NA LNG LLC to deliver a tanker of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Cove Point’s import terminal on the Maryland coast next month to keep the cryogenic portion of the facility cooled.

The Interior Department scored a partial victory last Wednesday when U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in Louisiana rejected industry allegations that the department exceeded its authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) by imposing new permitting requirements for developmental drilling in the western Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Ten projects focused on ways to increase U.S. supplies of unconventional natural gas and oil have been selected for partial federal funding, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said Monday.

Despite an expected warm-up in the eastern half of the country by the end of this coming weekend, the natural gas futures market staged a partial rebound on Tuesday as some market watchers were expecting last week’s frigid cold to translate into a storage draw of 200-300 Bcf in Thursday’s report.

Price drops at nearly all points Wednesday appeared to be at least partial justification for some traders’ belief that the overall firmness on Tuesday was not justified by weak weather fundamentals and the previous day’s futures decline of 12.8 cents.

Investigators believe the partial destruction of a metering shed at a wellhead site near the community of Tomslake, BC, was caused by a deliberate explosion and is the latest in a recent series of minor explosions in the area directed at Encana Corp. gas facilities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said last week.

Investigators believe the partial destruction of a metering shed at a wellhead site near the community of Tomslake, BC, was caused by a deliberate explosion and is the latest in a recent series of minor explosions in the area directed at Encana Corp. gas facilities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday.