Reduction

EnCana Corp. has filed revised plans for its Deep Panuke offshore gas project that envision a 25% reduction in production from the company’s previous plan. Production could begin in 2010.

EnCana Corp. has filed revised plans for its Deep Panuke offshore gas project that envision a 25% reduction in production from the company’s previous plan. Production could begin in 2010.

Canadian natural gas exports to the United States are slipping, in a trend large and long enough to start speculation that a long-forecast reduction has begun in Alberta’s role as an international supplier, due to rising domestic industrial consumption.

Canadian natural gas exports to the United States are slipping, in a trend large and long enough to start speculation that a long-forecast reduction has begun in Alberta’s role as an international supplier, due to rising domestic industrial consumption.

BHP Billiton LNG International announced a program to reduce air emissions from its proposed offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal, which has taken the lead in the race to build an LNG project on the U.S. West Coast. The Australian company made its announcement as the California State Lands Commission concluded a series of four public hearings on a revised draft environmental impact report (EIR) last Wednesday in Oxnard, CA.

BP plc, with long-term greenhouse gas reduction targets in place and plans to invest $8 billion in solar, wind, hydrogen and other clean-energy technologies in the next 10 years, received top scores among 100 companies that are working to develop climate-friendly technologies, according to Ceres, a Boston-based investor coalition.

Southern California Gas postponed the second phase of work scheduled in the San Joaquin Valley on Line 225. That ended Wednesday afternoon a large reduction in capacity at the Wheeler Ridge delivery point into SoCalGas due to this maintenance, which had previously been scheduled to run through Friday (see Daily GPI, March 1). The second phase of the project has not yet been rescheduled, a SoCalGas spokeswoman said.

With disappearing heating load and the previous day’s screen plunge exacerbated by the extra reduction of industrial demand associated with a long holiday weekend, cash prices tanked by more than a dollar — more than $2 in quite a few cases — across the board Friday.

The sharp reduction in the terms of new gas transportation and commodity contracts in recent years and the regulatory and market disincentives to longer-term contracting could delay much needed gas infrastructure projects, potentially costing consumers $653 billion in higher gas prices and price volatility over the next 15 years, according to a new white paper released by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), which represents the nation’s gas pipeline companies.