Pipes

House-Senate Republican negotiators advocate more deep-water natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, faster permitting for producers, an inventory of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas resources, enhanced development of gas pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and construction of an Alaska pipeline in their latest “discussion draft” of comprehensive energy legislation.

FERC’s chief accountant last week sent letters to five pipelines, Florida Gas, Transwestern Pipeline, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, Gulf South Pipeline and El Paso Natural Gas, informing them that they need to have updated written cash management agreements with their parent companies to identify the rules governing how corporate money pools are utilized. El Paso has an existing but outdated written agreement with its parent, FERC Chief Accountant John Delaware said.

FERC’s chief accountant on Tuesday told Enron subsidiaries Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) and Transwestern Pipeline Co. and Williams subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line that they should have written cash management agreements between the parent companies and the regulated subsidiaries to identify the rules governing how corporate money pools are utilized.

A federal appeals court last Tuesday vacated a pipeline rate decision and sent it back to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a second time, calling the “different rationales” cited by the agency for approving significantly higher initial Section 7 rates for natural gas transportation service on the then-Kansas Pipeline Co. “arbitrary and capricious.”

A federal appeals court on Tuesday vacated a pipeline rate decision and sent it back to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a second time, calling the “different rationales” cited by the agency for approving significantly higher initial Section 7 rates for natural gas transportation service on the then-Kansas Pipeline Co. “arbitrary and capricious.”

Southern Natural Gas pipeline was within its rights when it required Calpine Energy Services LP, a non-creditworthy shipper, to put up 30 months of collateral in order to receive service on its 114-mile South System Expansion project, FERC said last week.

Southern Natural Gas pipeline was within its rights when it required Calpine Energy Services LP, a non-creditworthy shipper, to put up 30 months of collateral to receive service on its 114-mile South System Expansion project, FERC said Wednesday.

Vector Pipeline LP. announced Monday that a new interconnect between its pipeline and ANR Pipeline Co. has been put into service at St. John in Lake County, IN. The connection is designed to provide natural gas customers in the Midwest and southwestern Ontario additional flexibility and access to natural gas supplies at the Joliet/Chicago Hub.

Interstate natural gas pipelines scored a key victory Wednesday in a final FERC rule that gives pipes “additional flexibility” to rebuild damaged facilities to restore service following an “emergency interruption,” whether caused deliberately or not.