Progress

FERC Chairman Pat Wood said the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Tuesday underscored the economic importance of abundant, reasonably-priced natural gas. He also noted that the industry is well on its way toward increasing imports of liquefied natural gas.

As energy merchants and utilities slowly pick themselves off the mat and get back into the game, CMS Energy Corp. and TXU Corp. last week scored some positive news.

Three House committees and a Senate panel voted out energy bills this week that would provide a host of financial and tax incentives for oil and natural gas producers, strengthen FERC’s enforcement hand somewhat in the energy markets and attempt once again to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and production activities.

Updating its progress on the Sunrise-Mayel No. 2H natural gas well near Delano, CA, Tri-Valley Corp. reported that it is expanding operations to the upper Shafter-Wasco zone of the McClure Shale formation because the current zone has a significant amount of clay content that can swell and block gas delivery.

Looking to shore-up investor support and appease credit rating agencies, El Paso Corp. last week reiterated its restructuring commitment, along with its mission of focusing on its global liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum business (see NGI, June 3).

Marking its first petition for a rate increase in seven years, Progress Energy subsidiary, NCNG, said Monday that it has filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC), seeking an increase in natural gas service rates for its customers. The company said it is seeking to recover the cost of serving its 176,000 residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers.

The anthrax-laced mail scare in Washington, DC has hastened the progress being made at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on electronic filing of documents.

The anthrax-laced mail hoaxes in Washington, DC have quickened the progress being made at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on electronic filing of documents.

Making steady progress since Monday against a rising tide of declining energy stock prices, Atlanta, GA-based Southern Co., Akron, OH-based FirstEnergy and New Jersey-based GPU Inc. again were on the plus side Wednesday. It wasn’t hard to figure, as U.S. aircraft carriers steamed toward the Caribbean and the Middle East, with fighter planes expected to follow soon. The three utilities own no foreign facilities.