Pressure

With bulging storage stocks putting increased pressure on natural gas prices, a Prudential Securities Inc. analyst on Friday reduced or left unchanged her 2001 earnings-per-share (EPS) estimates for more than half of the major energy companies that she routinely tracks.

Bowing to pressure from the state of Florida, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced yesterday the department has significantly scaled back the amount of offshore acreage that will be available for the controversial Lease Sale 181 off the coast of Florida later this year.

Bowing to pressure from Capitol Hill, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled that the settlement conference currently in progress in Washington D.C. could address issues related to past power sales to consumers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as California.

Bowing to pressure from Capitol Hill, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a ruling late Friday clarifying that the settlement conference currently in progress in Washington D.C. “may” address issues related to past power sales to consumers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as California.

Yielding to pressure from all sides, FERC last week did a complete about-face and set for hearing the allegations that El Paso Natural Gas rigged the bidding process for a large block of transportation capacity on its system to favor its merchant-power generation facilities. The decision was a major win for California parties and a disappointing setback for El Paso pipeline and its affiliates.

From the White House to Congress to the California governor’s office to the boardrooms of the nation’s top power marketers and generators, all eyes will be on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission today as it convenes a specially meeting to address a multitude of requests for rehearing of its much-maligned market monitoring and price mitigation plan that went into effect in late May for the California power market.

Under political pressure to add gas transportation capacity in the state of California, Sempra subsidiary Southern California Gas announced additional plans to expand its intrastate pipeline system. The company said it will add another 6% of capacity to its previously announced project, bringing the proposed expansion to an 11% increase in capacity or about 200 MMcf/d.

Under political pressure to add gas transportation capacity in the state of California, Sempra subsidiary Southern California Gas announced additional plans to expand its intrastate pipeline system. The company said it will add another 6% of capacity to its previously announced project, bringing the proposed expansion to an 11% increase in capacity or about 200 MMcf/d.

Under increasing pressure from Congress, FERC last week agreed to hold a public conference later this month to address the state of “current and projected” interstate gas pipeline capacity to the California market, as well as explore what is driving the higher gas prices in the southern end of the state.