Rates

There is very little not to like about shale gas from the perspective of Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), one of the largest electric utilities in the nation and the consumer of 2% of the nation’s annual natural gas demand and 17% of California’s demand. For SCE shale is a “game-changer” and a buffer against wholesale gas price spikes.

Higher rates and new pipeline projects helped AGL Resources Inc.’s 3Q2010 earnings to increase 83% compared with 3Q2009 earnings, the Atlanta-based company said.

Natural gas wells in East Texas continue to show promising initial production (IP) rates, Goodrich Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday.

A rate case settlement agreement between Duke Energy Kentucky and the commonwealth’s attorney general would increase rates for natural gas delivery service by approximately $13 million, or 10.4% of total gas revenues, effective in early 2010. The original request was for $17.5 million, or a 14% increase, the company said Monday.

A decline in the price of natural gas could result in significantly lower rates this winter for the customer of two utilities in the Pacific Northwest.

FERC has given Houston-based Vista Energy Marketing LP (VEM) approval to sell wholesale electricity at market-based rates following the agency’s months-long investigation into past wrongdoing of two key officials.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Thursday took a couple of actions dealing with natural gas utility rates that are footnotes to more turbulent times in the state’s evolving gas markets. On the one hand, the CPUC established a proceeding to allocate settlement monies from past lawsuits stemming from the 1999-2002 energy crisis, but it rejected a request to suspend a long-standing market-indexed capital cost adjustment mechanism.

The domestic natural gas rig count is down substantially from year-ago levels, but higher initial production (IP) rates in some of the prolific shale plays suggest rig efficiencies may have lifted output by 10%, which would partially offset expected supply declines, a review by Barclays Capital analysts has found.

Xcel Energy asked regulators in Colorado to let it lower its natural gas rates to reflect a 24% drop in wholesale commodity costs in July for its residential and small business utility customers. Bills for the month should be down by 12% and 24% for residential and small business customers, respectively.