Quietly

California regulators last Friday quietly closed the curtain on the multi-year natural gas transmission and storage case for Sempra Energy’s two major utilities, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E). Handled as a consent agenda item without any discussion, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously approved a utilities-stakeholders settlement allocating nearly $2 billion between the two utilities.

Under the radar of the usual public discussion on business agenda items, Sempra Energy quietly celebrated Friday as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) separately and unanimously approved a $6.5 million reward for its gas utility supply purchasing programs and an amendment to a delayed pumped storage generation project that could bring its electric utility operations some extra revenues.

While a significant portion of the industry was busy extending the Independence Day holiday, August natural gas futures on Thursday quietly worked downward yet again, recording a low of $6.560 before closing out the day at $6.618, down 13.6 cents from Tuesday’s close.

The trading week ended quietly Friday with Northeast citygates continuing to take long strides in retreat from the quadruple-digit heights they had seen early in the week and the rest of the cash market mixed but with bears firmly entrenched in the driver’s seat.

Quietly closing the books on about six years of regulatory proceedings and stakeholder negotiations, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) without discussion Thursday approved a program for trading firm capacity rights on Southern California Gas Co.’s transmission system serving the southern half of the state. It addition, the CPUC revised some terms on open season local transmission commitments and expansions, along with rejecting a protest by a coalition of Southern California electric generators.

Quietly closing the books on about six years of regulatory proceedings and stakeholder negotiations, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) without discussion Thursday approved a program for trading firm capacity rights on Southern California Gas Co.’s transmission system serving the southern half of the state. It addition, the CPUC revised some terms on open season local transmission commitments and expansions, along with rejecting a protest by a coalition of Southern California electric generators.

Just days after the 2006 hurricane season officially — and quietly — ended (see NGI, Dec. 4), a respected London-based forecaster issued a much stormier outlook for 2007, predicting that 16 tropical storms are likely to occur in the Atlantic basin next season, including nine hurricanes and four so-called “intense,” or Category 3-5 storms.

Just days after the 2006 hurricane season officially — and quietly — ended (see Daily GPI, Dec. 1), a respected London-based forecaster on Thursday issued a much stormier outlook for 2007, predicting that 16 tropical storms are likely to occur in the Atlantic basin next season, including nine hurricanes and four so-called “intense,” or Category 3-5 storms.

Last week’s market ended quietly with anticipated declines at most points Friday as warming trends were expected to be in place by the end of the weekend in many of the areas that had been experiencing cold weather. However, flat to moderately higher numbers in several scattered instances averted a clean sweep of softening.