Requiring

Softer natural gas prices are eroding Canadian well numbers, but western drilling rigs are staying busy as the industry switches to targets requiring more work including deep supplies to bank for future use.

Softer natural gas prices are eroding Canadian well numbers, but western drilling rigs are staying busy as the industry switches to targets requiring more work including deep supplies to bank for future use.

The Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved an agreement requiring Southern Missouri Gas Co., which serves about 7,250 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the state, to have a gas supply plan in place before next winter with 55% of its supply locked in under fixed prices or hedged against market exposure.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision requiring the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to turn over documents to E. & J. Gallo Winery that the agency obtained during an investigation into the natural gas trading activities of WD Energy Services. Gallo pursued the documents as part of its lawsuit against the now-defunct U.S.-based energy trading unit of EnCana Corp.

FERC on Thursday revoked the market-based rate authority of eight companies for failure to comply with regulations requiring electric quarterly reports (EQRs). In addition, six other companies were put on notice that their market-based rate authority would be revoked unless they comply with Commission regulations and file their reports within 15 days.

CenterPoint declared a Critical Period Thursday, saying its system is fully subscribed and operating at or near full utilization, and thus it “is requiring customers systemwide, particularly those whose swings can cause operational difficulties…to take deliveries as close to ratably as possible throughout the day during the period that this alert is in effect.” CenterPoint said it will not allow shipper’ takes to exceed hourly ratable entitlements (based on nominated and scheduled quantities) by more than 5% in any hour at the Perryville Hub, 20% in any hour for the North Louisiana and East Texas Core and Secondary systems, and 50% per hour for the remainder of the system.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman last Tuesday issued an order requiring Mirant Corp.’s 482 MW Potomac River Generating Station in Alexandria, VA to immediately resume limited operation. The order requires the plant to operate in two limited circumstances — in the event of a necessary planned outage of one of two main transmission lines that feed power into the nation’s capital, as well as during an unplanned outage of one or both of the transmission lines.

FERC on Friday issued a final rule requiring potential developers of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals and associated pipeline facilities to initiate pre-filing procedures at least six months before filing a formal application with the agency. The rule also would apply to companies seeking to expand their existing LNG facilities, if FERC’s director of Office of Energy Projects (OEP) deems it necessary.

TXU Corp. said Wednesday that it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 18, requiring the company to provide detailed information about the implosion of its European retail energy operations, TXU Europe, and its dividend cut in fall of 2002.