Room

With ceremonial taps on two cordless computer mice to power upthe high-tech control room in Calgary, Alliance Pipeline enteredservice amid forecasts that it will rapidly be put to full use.Alliance did not immediately announce the opening amount of gas inits 2,300-mile route from Fort St. John in northeastern BritishColumbia to Chicago. But industry sources said it was filling uprapidly after curing startup glitches that postponed the event fora month, with about 800 MMcf/d flowing or 60% of its scheduledvolumes. The line was installed with ability to take up to 1.5Bcf/d in order to guarantee service on its 1.325 Bcf/d inlong-term, firm transportation contracts.

A room full of producers was asked last week in Houston whetherthey would contract to sell gas for $3 for 10 years, adjusted forinflation. Only a smattering of hands went up. Clearly, optimismhas returned to the industry.

A room full of producers was asked yesterday in Houston whetherthey would contract to sell gas for $3.00 for 10 years, adjustedfor inflation. Only a small smattering of hands went up. Clearly,optimism has returned to the industry.

Sempra Energy Information Solutions, a newly-formed SempraEnergy subsidiary, announced yesterday it has entered into a jointventure with two information technology companies to form SolianceNetworks, a provider of Internet-based information systemstargeting small and mid-sized energy utilities. Sempra owns themajority interest in Soliance and Dale Kelly-Cochrane, the formervice president of Sempra Energy’s strategic planning forunregulated businesses, is the joint venture’s president.

With two more months of breathing room to work out a deal,Southern California Gas Co. has substantially modified its originalrestructuring proposal for the resumption of settlementnegotiations this week in Los Angeles. With SoCalGas leading theway, representatives of 75 interested parties are attempting tohammer out a consensus on how further unbundling is shaped forCalifornia’s natural gas industry.

While there’s much commercial and industrial customers likeabout gas unbundling, they still have complaints, according to arecent study. And while marketers are perceived to be moresensitive to customers’ wants and needs than LDCs, utilities arestill favored for gas supply by some.

The primary factor contributing to energy trading room successis information, which comes before risk management and workplacecultural factors, according to a Saladin survey of energy traders.Traders told Saladin they are using more information and analysisthan they did a year ago. Saladin predicted a year ago thatInternet usage would outpace traders’ predictions, which theinformation provider found to be the case with its latest survey.Also as predicted, there is an increased focus on risk managementand integrated systems. Three-quarters of traders reportedincreased use of the Internet. More than 20% of trading roomsimplemented new risk management systems over the last year, andnearly a third of those surveyed noted advances in sophistication;in implementation of value at risk; and in systems, controls andprocedures.