Requests

FERC last Monday rejected requests by New England parties to reopen the case of the proposed Weaver’s Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to be located in Fall River, MA, saying the parties failed to demonstrate that the company’s new plan to use smaller tankers to navigate the Taunton River amounted to “extraordinary circumstances.”

FERC has rejected requests for rehearing of a February order in which the federal agency rescinded two market behavior rules following the promulgation of new regulations prohibiting the employment of manipulative or deceptive devices or contrivances in wholesale electricity and natural gas transactions.

FERC on Monday rejected requests by New England parties to reopen the case on the proposed Weaver’s Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to be located in Fall River, MA, saying the parties failed to demonstrate that the company’s new plan to use smaller tankers to navigate the Taunton River amounted to “extraordinary circumstances.”

Acting on specifications in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) published requests for comments in the Federal Register this week to prepare for proposed rulemakings that would provide royalty relief for gas and oil production using enhanced recovery techniques and for gas production from methane hydrates.

Panhandle Energy said an open season for expansion of the Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. generated requests for more than 1 Bcf of firm transportation capacity.

MidAmerican Energy’s Northern Natural Gas pipeline on Friday filed concurrent requests at FERC to increase the capacity of its storage facilities in Iowa and Kansas.

FERC would be willing to consider requests filed at the Commission for cost recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina if such filings are jurisdictional to the federal agency, FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher said last Tuesday.

As expected, Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG), a subsidiary of El Paso Corp., on Tuesday filed a formal application with FERC to construct the proposed Raton Basin expansion project (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7). The project’s targeted date for initial service is Oct. 1, 2005, with full completion in December 2005.

Facing higher natural gas costs, Unitil has filed an interim increase in its Cost of Gas Adjustment (CGA) factor with the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (MDTE). If approved, a typical residential heating customer using 150 therms/month in the winter would see an increase of $11.06 or 5.4% over the current rates.