Putting

Putting to rest a long-running bitter feud, Southwest Gas has agreed to pay Southern Union $17.5 million to settle claims of fraud and bad faith breach of contract related to Southern Union’s attempts to purchase Southwest.

Putting to rest a long-running bitter feud, Southwest Gas has agreed to pay Southern Union $17.5 million to settle claims of fraud and bad faith breach of contract related to Southern Union’s attempts to purchase Southwest. Following on the mid-week announcement by the two companies, Oneok Inc. said Friday it had agreed to pay $3 million to Southwest Gas in settlement of other litigation related to the three-way wrangle.

Putting to rest the capacity release contract dispute raised by Tenaska Marketing Ventures against Northern Border Pipeline Co. in the wake of Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy, FERC ruled last Wednesday in favor of Northern Border, denying Tenaska’s complaint against the pipeline.

Putting to rest a Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) complaint from August 2001, Atlanta Gas Light Co. said last week that it reached an agreement with the GPSC regarding its commission-imposed earnings review. Under the agreement, AGLC adopted a three-year performance-based rate plan that will reduce the base rates of its customers by $10 million annually. The company also reported its first quarter 2002 earnings, which showed a small decline from the similar quarter a year ago.

The merger between Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. and UK-based National Grid Group plc was completed Thursday, putting the combined utility company at the forefront of the New York-New England market. The $3 billion Niagara Mohawk merger was first announced in September 2000 (see NGI, Sept. 11, 2000) and received final regulatory approval earlier this month.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is putting the finishing touches on a national transmission grid study that, among other things, recognizes improved regional planning as a tool for removing transmission bottlenecks, Vicky Bailey, assistant secretary of energy for policy and international affairs at the DOE, told a gathering of electric utility executives last Wednesday at a transmission summit in Washington, DC.

Natural gas storage facilities are busting at the seams right now after the American Gas Association (AGA) reported the industry was still putting in more inventories during the third full week of November in reaction to mild weather, low prices and lack of demand. With the 12 Bcf injection AGA reported, storage is at a new record high of 3,144 Bcf and the year-on-year storage deficit is at a crushing 642 Bcf, leaving a glut of gas supply on the market that will put severe downward pressure on spot prices for months to come, according to analysts.

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.

On the same day that he was handed the reins of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said that bipartisan legislation directing FERC to set cost-based rates to ensure just and reasonable wholesale energy prices in California could get consideration from the panel within the next couple of weeks. Separately, newly-minted Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) made it clear earlier this week that he stands ready to support such legislation if FERC falls short of meeting its just and reasonable obligations.