Recent

Citing such factors as customer cooperation and recent storageactivity in March, ANR said it was able to rescind a Februarynotice requiring that interruptible storage customers under the MBSand DDS rate schedules draw their accounts down to a zero balanceby today. However, the pipeline added, due to abnormally highinventory balances remaining and overall operational concerns, itmust continue to limit interruptible injections “for theforeseeable future.”

The recent rise in U.S. crude oil prices due to the announcedproduction cuts by the Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries (OPEC) shouldn’t stop Congress from pursuing legislativereforms for domestic oil and natural gas producers, the head of anindependent producer association said yesterday.

Despite the recent failure of multiple pipeline expansions intonorthern Illinois and Wisconsin, CMS Energy, WICOR and Viking Gashave come up with another project they hope will finally wrest someof the marketplace from ANR Pipeline’s monopoly grip. The projectappears to have what its predecessors did not: a confirmed market.

For about an hour yesterday it appeared as if the futures marketwas ready to break out of its recent rut. Feeding on emotiongathered in Monday’s active session, the April contract quicklymapped out a 7-cent trading range in only the first hour oftrading. But, that would be about all the market could handle andthe prompt month spent the rest of the session drifting aimlesslywithin that range. April finished down 0.5 cents to $1.696.

Recent decisions by FERC and Utah regulators involving theextent of their jurisdiction over the interstate transportationactivities of Questar Gas, a Utah-based LDC, don’t appear to becontradictory, say lawyers and company officials. In fact, the tworulings complement each other, particularly on the issue of states’authority over the interstate function of Hinshaw-exempt gasdistributors.

Recent decisions by FERC and Utah regulators involving theextent of their jurisdiction over the interstate transportationrole of Questar Gas, a Utah-based LDC, don’t appear to becontradictory, say lawyers and company officials.

A recent administrative action in New York that would subjectthe delivery of electricity, including power purchased fromthird-party suppliers, to the state’s sales tax has the potentialto undermine fledgling efforts to restructure the retail powermarket, say utilities and marketers.

In the wake of a recent court ruling overturning FERC on a keyissue in the El Paso Natural Gas rate settlement, the Commissionyesterday in an unrelated case spelled out the standards andprocedures it follows in settlement cases where contested issuesare raised.

The move by Houston Industries (HI) last week to reconfigure itsbusiness to meet the demands of gas and power convergence followsrecent actions to build up its power generation division. HI formedHouston Industries Wholesale Energy Group to combine its powergeneration, gas transportation, and wholesale energy trading andmarketing capabilities of the company.