Process

The major associations serving the natural gas and oil industries are in the process of forming a coalition to deal with public debate heating up over the number of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals being built around the nation and the growing amount of imported LNG entering the U.S. marketplace to capture soaring market values.

The major associations serving the natural gas and oil industries are in the process of forming a coalition to deal with public debate heating up over the number of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals being built around the nation and the growing amount of imported LNG bent on entering the U.S. marketplace to capture soaring market values.

Calling the wholesalers’ mass exodus of retail energy marketing a “cyclical” process, Compass Energy Services Inc. President Chris Ziegler said he expects the large companies to return to the segment at some point, but not in the near future.

Calling the wholesalers’ mass exodus of retail energy marketing a “cyclical” process, Compass Energy Services Inc. President Chris Ziegler said he expects the large companies to return to the segment at some point, but not in the near future.

Exxon Mobil Corp. affiliate Golden Pass LNG Terminal LP has started the permitting process at FERC on a proposed $600 million LNG import terminal that would be located near Sabine Pass, TX, about 10 miles south of Port Arthur and not that far from another LNG import terminal being proposed by Cheniere Energy.

Some Midcontinent/Midwest points stayed flat Friday as a cold front was in the process of greatly enlarging its presence in the region, but the rest of the market saw varying degrees of decline ranging from less than a nickel to more than 40 cents.

Southern Company GAS and Accenture have signed a seven-year business process outsourcing agreement under which Accenture will provide customer care and revenue cycle activities, including billing, contract management and collections, to the Atlanta-based company. The agreement, which is worth an estimated $80 million, is designed to improve the quality and lower the cost of the customer care and billing services that the Southern Co. subsidiary provides to its more than 200,000 natural gas customers. The services covered under the agreement include call center, billing, correspondence management, transaction management, revenue management, collections and exception processing operations. Accenture will provide the services through Accenture Business Services for Utilities, a subsidiary that provides back office management services to the utilities industry across North America. Accenture also will provide all customer care-related information technology (IT) services and key marketing services, such as outbound and inbound customer acquisition processing. Southern Company GAS will retain ownership of all customer-related data and the underlying IT systems and expects its current management team to continue to play an active role with operations.

FERC last Wednesday said 11 major energy companies, several of which had publicly admitted to supplying false data to published indexes on natural gas trades, have shown to the agency’s satisfaction that they have plugged up the holes in their systems for reporting prices to forestall abuses in the future.

FERC on Wednesday said 11 major energy companies, several of which had publicly admitted to supplying false data to published indexes on natural gas trades, have satisfactorily shown the agency that they have improved their systems for reporting prices in the future.