Role

Seeking some credit for helping resolve California’s wholesale energy price and supply crisis last year, Southern California Gas Co. said at year-end that it “did everything in its power” to increase access and availability of natural gas supplies in the state, marking its tenth consecutive year of avoiding curtailments to its 5.1 million customers. (Its affiliated utility in the Sempra Energy companies, San Diego Gas and Electric Co., however, did curtail some of its largest industrial customers, including two power plants, on two separate occasions last winter.)

Non-performance of Enron-related gas did not appear to be a major factor in Monday’s price rebounds that were especially strong in the West. Replacement of purchases from Enron did play a part, sources said, but it was more a big Tuesday-only production outage in the Rockies and covering of short positions that sent post-weekend prices soaring by about 20 cents or more across the board. Opal quotes saw the biggest gain by far of more than 80 cents, according to one source.

Northern Illinois Gas Co. (Nicor Gas) has agreed to pay nearly $4.1 million for its role in mercury leaks and improper disposal over a 10-year period of some of its gas regulators that were replaced by the utility in its service area. The agreement, approved by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul P. Biebel, was reached on Wednesday between Nicor Gas and the Illinois attorney general and the state’s attorneys of Cook, DuPage and Will counties.

Northern Illinois Gas Co. (Nicor Gas) has agreed to pay nearly $4.1 million for its role in mercury leaks and improper disposal over a 10-year period of some of its gas regulators that were replaced by the utility in its service area. The agreement, approved by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Paul P. Biebel, was reached on Wednesday between Nicor Gas and the Illinois attorney general and the state’s attorneys of Cook, DuPage and Will counties.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) last week assumed the lead role to direct operations following the uncontrolled release Aug. 26 of storage cavern ethane and the resulting fire from two wellheads at BP Canada’s natural gas liquids plant near Fort Saskatchewan, AB. While there were no reported injuries, EUB said the incident is “impacting other petroleum operations within the province involving both upstream natural gas liquids production and downstream natural gas liquids product use.”

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) has assumed the lead role to direct operations following the uncontrolled release Sunday of storage cavern ethane and the resulting fire from two wellheads at BP Canada’s natural gas liquids plant near Fort Saskatchewan, AB. While there were no reported injuries, EUB said the incident is “impacting other petroleum operations within the province involving both upstream natural gas liquids production and downstream natural gas liquids product use.”

President Bush “obviously likes and trusts Pat Wood,” said former FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker last week, when asked why he thought the president decided to get rid of current Chairman Curt Hebert Jr., a Republican, after just seven months on the job and replace him with Wood to lead the Commission.

Expanding its current fuel management role to merchant power plants, Houston-based Noble Affiliates Inc.’s subsidiary, Noble Gas Marketing, plans to manage the fuel needs of two of the largest merchant power plants in the country with a combined capacity of 4,400 MW. The natural gas-fired power plants are being constructed by Panda Energy International and TECO Power Services. Noble will procure fuel for the Union Power Station in El Dorado, AR, and the Gila River Power Station in Gila Bend, AZ.

President Bush “obviously likes and trusts Pat Wood,” said former FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker yesterday, when asked why he thought the president decided to get rid of current Chairman Curt Hebert Jr., a Republican, and replace him with Wood.