Risk

The FERC is scheduled Wednesday to weigh in on a request by the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) that would grant the committee’s Energy Data Hub and its participants the same “safe harbor” protection that is afforded to companies that currently submit pricing information to index publishers. The request, however, is not going unchallenged as a leading index publisher has fired back, questioning the validity of anointing an experimental hub concept with the same protections afforded to publishers who have adopted FERC’s standards on price indexes.

With FERC scheduled Wednesday to weigh in on the “safe harbor” protection request made by the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) on behalf of its Energy Data Hub (see Daily GPI, June14), more parties are voicing their objections and support on the issue to the Commission. In addition to safe harbor protections for the Energy Data Hub and those that report to the hub, the CCRO requested assurances that FERC will not use the Energy Data Hub as a target for investigations by the Commission into transaction data by the participating companies.

A reduction in generating resources, resulting from potential risk factors such as an aging number of power plants, environmental regulations, as well as financial uncertainty in the market, could bring about deficit electricity conditions in certain areas of New England within the next two to four years, ISO New England (ISO-NE) said on Thursday.

As questions regarding domestic supply adequacy continue to swirl around the marketplace, new questions about a lack of manpower in the sector are beginning to be asked. Called upon by Congress to help lead the way in addressing the issue, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said a lack of manpower within the oil and gas industry is jeopardizing the country’s energy security.

Amerex Energy, based in Sugar Land, TX, announced Tuesday it had joined the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO), as the first brokerage firm to be invited to join the organization since its inception in late 2002.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a revised plan from EnCana Corp. on its stalled Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia. After notifying provincial authorities in December it would submit a new plan in six months, EnCana now estimates it could take up to a year as it works on ways to make the offshore discovery economical. Panuke originally was estimated to hold 1 Tcf of gas and was expected to produce 400 MMcf/d.

An industry group chaired by leaders of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) last Tuesday set up a task force to improve voluntary industry reporting of natural gas price information to publications that publish price indexes, and to establish better communications with FERC to ward off mandatory price reporting threatened by the Commission.

An industry group chaired by leaders of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers Tuesday set up a task force to improve voluntary industry reporting of natural gas price information to publications that publish price indexes, and to establish better communications with FERC to ward off mandatory price reporting threatened by the Commission.

The significant need for risk management tools in the energy market because of credit concerns and the loss of so many energy merchants and proprietary trading platforms has led to the apparent success of the New York Mercantile Exchange’s ClearPort trading and clearing system. In its first year of operation, the system has cleared three million off-exchange energy futures contracts, Nymex said on Thursday.