Publication

A proposed rule in Texas to require public disclosure of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluid contents was approved for publication Monday by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC).

Water samples taken from seven Pennsylvania rivers showed levels of radioactivity at or below “background levels,” according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Noting that the publication of its Gas Quality Policy Statement (PL04-03) “was not a pretext for pipelines to completely revamp the gas quality and interchangeability standards in their tariffs,” FERC recently rejected an attempt by Northern Natural Gas to make major changes in its quality standards specifications and in the manner those standards are applied or waived.

Three former Mirant and Cinergy Corp. natural gas traders pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to report bogus trades to an industry publication between July and November 2000 in an attempt to manipulate gas price indexes.

A former Reliant Energy natural gas trader, who pleaded guilty last year to filing a false natural gas price data report to an industry publication, has asked the court to throw out his indictment. Jerry Futch, who faced up to five years in prison, was originally charged with four criminal counts for filing false data and was scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Nov. 30, 2004).

The third of four former El Paso Corp. natural gas traders has pleaded guilty to making false reports to an industry publication. William Ham, 45, faces up to five years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He pleaded guilty late Monday in Houston, and he also agreed to cooperate with authorities in the ongoing investigation.

The daily publication of natural gas storage data would deter the “surreptitious disclosures” of storage-related information to market participants and would “aid in the enforcement” of the industry, an enforcement official with FERC’s Office of Market Oversight & Investigations (OMOI) said Tuesday.

Before a packed crowd at FERC Thursday, scores of energy industry and publication executives proposed improvements in the system of collecting and compiling index prices for natural gas. Flaws in the system have been magnified by a “bright light being shown on the process” in the wake of charges that traders manipulated the indexes.

In an attempt to capture the price discovery offered in therapidly expanding electronic exchange market, NGI added a new pricereport to its daily publication, NGI’s Daily Gas Price Index, andto its website. “NGI’s Electronic Platform Trading Index” will becomprised of deals done each morning before 11:30 a.m. (CST) andwill be published on its website at http://intelligencepress.com by1 p.m. (CST) each business day and in NGI’s Daily Gas Price Indexthe following day.