Republished

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.

Huntsman Corp., a Texas-based chemical company with $5 billionin revenues, selected Reliant Energy to supply gas to 10manufacturing facilities for $250 million. For competitive reasons,Reliant did not disclose the length of the contract or how much gaswill be supplied. It did say the contract has already gone intoservice.

Energy.Com and Columbia Gas of Ohio have teamed up to enableColumbia Gas customers to switch suppliers online from theEnergy.com web site as part of the utility’s customer choiceprogram. It marks Energy.com’s entrance into active deregulationenrollment services, the company said.

The staff of the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) gaveNorthwest Natural Gas (NWNG) quite a beating this week in a generalrate case. The staff recommended a revenue reduction of $19.9million per year from the gas utility’s operations in Oregon. NWNGhad requested a revenue increase of $14.7 million per year.

Rep. Robert Franks (R-NJ) told natural gas executives yesterdaythe Pipeline Safety Act of 1995, which is up for reauthorization inCongress this year, has been a success story so far and that hedoesn’t think it should be changed.

Texas moved a step closer to a restructured electricitymarketplace Wednesday when the state Senate approved a bill toderegulate electric utilities. The bill is now bound for the StateAffairs Committee of the House of Representatives. Hearings couldbe held as early as March 29. Gov. George W. Bush has voiced hissupport for electric deregulation.

California regulators are scheduled to wrap up the formaldata-gathering phase of their assessment of the state’s natural gasmarkets with an oral argument March 23 in San Francisco. Using thisdata and the record from formal hearings conducted earlier thisyear, the California Public Utilities Commission will establish alist of the most promising options for injecting more competitioninto the state’s natural gas business, beginning next year. Thehalf-day hearing will divide 19 major parties into two discussionpanels: one focused on customer issues and the other oncompetitors. The three utilities will be represented on bothpanels.

Signaling what could become a trend among large producers, Shellyesterday said it is stepping into the independent power generationbusiness with partner Bechtel Enterprises.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Eastern Express Project 2000 is a muchdifferent expansion today-mainly much smaller-as it arrives at FERCthan when it was announced more than a year ago. Last winter, thecompany said there was market interest in more than 4 Bcf/d of firmcapacity along nearly every stretch of its system, from the Gulf ofMexico north, from Chicago and Niagara east and from New Hampshiresouth. But Tennessee filed an application yesterday with FERC toadd only 168 MMcf/d of capacity along the northernmost part of itspipeline at connections with PNGTS and Maritimes.