Removing

Pennsylvania lawmakers have restarted discussions about imposing an impact fee on natural gas operators by removing the fee from legislation introduced earlier this year.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have restarted discussions about imposing an impact fee on natural gas operators by removing the fee from legislation introduced earlier this year.

Removing a moratorium on new drilling in Pennsylvania state forests is not a priority, the acting secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) told a state Senate committee during confirmation hearings earlier this month.

FERC last Thursday issued a final rule that seeks to bolster competition in the secondary gas capacity release markets by removing the price ceiling on short-term releases of natural gas transportation capacity and exempting asset management arrangements (AMAs) and other transactions from the agency’s tying prohibition. The order, however, rejected requests for an exemption to the capacity tying prohibition for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

With Americans “feeling the squeeze of rising prices at the pump,” President Bush Monday issued an executive order removing the executive ban on oil and natural gas drilling in much of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Removing the moratorium on offshore oil and natural gas drilling isn’t likely to take place on a “large scale,” but rather is more likely to occur in a piecemeal fashion, with coastal states leading the charge, said Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Randall Luthi last Wednesday.

Removing the moratorium on offshore oil and natural gas drilling isn’t likely to take place on a “large scale,” but rather is more likely to occur in a piecemeal fashion, with coastal states leading the charge, said Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director Randall Luthi Wednesday.

Cheyenne Plains said late Tuesday it was continuing its free flow operation “as well as removing delivery point constraints as downstream delivery point operators agree to accept off-spec gas from Cheyenne Plains.” Effective with Cycle 2 nominations for Wednesday’s gas day, receipts from WIC at the Curly and Thunder Chief interconnects and from CIG at the Red Cloud interconnect were again possible at their normal capacity, Cheyenne Plains said, explaining that the leaking valve on its system that had previously prevented receipts from WIC and CIG had been returned to service. See the bulletin board for a list of delivery point operators that have agreed to waive their carbon dioxide (CO2) gas quality requirements and to accept gas that contains up to 3% CO2, along with allowable point-specific volumes. In another posting, Cheyenne Plains said that while an investigation of Sunday’s Cheyenne Plains Compressor Station fire (see Daily GPI, Sept. 18) is still under way, “we believe the fire resulted from the release and subsequent ignition of gas when the flange connections associated with a relief valve on the suction side of the Cheyenne Plains compression failed. When the fire was detected, all compression in the Cheyenne yard was shut down, including that serving Colorado Interstate Gas Company (CIG) and Wyoming Interstate Company, Ltd. (WIC). Subsequently, the compression facilities serving CIG and WIC were able to return to service. Although damage assessments of the Cheyenne Plains facilities are continuing, it is clear that a significant amount of instrumentation and electrical wiring was damaged in the fire and will need to be replaced. This includes most of the cable trays and associated electrical wiring. Some nearby yard piping and valves appear to need replacement as well.”

Removing a major hurdle for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.’s (CME) bid for CBOT Holdings Inc., parent company of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division in closing its investigation Monday found that the deal would likely not reduce competition.