Putting

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) announced Friday he is putting offintroducing the Senate Republicans’ widely anticipatedcomprehensive energy legislation until the week of Feb. 26, at theearliest.

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) announced Friday he is putting offintroducing the Senate Republicans’ widely anticipatedcomprehensive energy legislation until the week of Feb. 26, at theearliest.

Northwest noted that despite putting its system into entitlementand issuing a realignment OFO, primary scheduled volumes throughKemmerer (WY) Station remain greater than physical capacity.Therefore, starting today the pipeline is invoking a “must-flowOFO” provision of its tariff. Until further notice, shippers withprimary corridor rights southbound through Kemmerer are required toflow up to 10% of their contract demand from receipt points northof Kemmerer to delivery points south of Kemmerer or take some othermutually agreeable action to alleviate the Kemmerer capacityproblem. See the Northwest bulletin board for details.

After putting its 50% interest of the Express System crude oil pipeline on the market last December as part of CEO Doug Baldwin’s $3 billion divestiture program, TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. (TCPL) finally found a buyer in Alberta Energy Company Ltd. (AEC) for a net total of $60 million. Included in the sale is TransCanada’s 50% interest in Marquest marketing entities which act as shippers on the system.

Retail marketers have been dropping like flies in Georgia, andbilling problems have been mainly to blame. As the Georgia PublicService Commission was putting the finishing touches on a notice ofproposed rulemaking (NOPR) last week that would punish retailmarketers for not getting accurate bills out on time, anothermarketer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection apparentlyrelated to billing problems in the Atlanta gas market.

Retail marketers have been dropping like flies in Georgia, andbilling problems have been mainly to blame. As the Georgia PublicService Commission was putting the finishing touches on a notice ofproposed rulemaking (NOPR) this week that would punish retailmarketers for not getting accurate bills out on time, anothermarketer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection apparentlyrelated to billing problems in the Atlanta gas market.

After putting in a price bottom at the end of July, natural gasfutures have moved steadily higher throughout the month of Augustas traders priced a hurricane premium into the market. Theirconcern is that a supply disruption in a market that already sportsa tight supply-demand equilibrium could mean serious problemsheading into the crucial winter demand months.

The screen was back to putting on a spectacular show forwatchers again Monday. It took practically all day to get there,but the July futures contract kept pushing until it eventuallywound up at $4.398, up 35.5 cents on the day and just shy of thefinal June settlement at $4.406.

Putting the finishing touches on a controversial asset sell-offplan, MCN Energy Group Inc. announced last week the sale of itsAppalachian natural gas exploration and production (E&P) andrelated pipeline properties for a total of about $180 million.