Schedules

Columbia Gas (TCO) cited a force majeure situation at the Chesapeake LNG plant in saying shippers under Rate Schedules X-131, X-132 and X-133 will be entitled to flow on a daily basis only one-fourth of their Liquefaction Demand volumes. The restriction began Thursday and will remain in effect until the situation is remedied, TCO said. It also issued an OFO to shippers under the FSS rate schedule that also have FT capacity and to NTS rate schedule customers. The OFO will become effective at 10 a.m. EST Sunday. TCO said the order was issued to preserve the integrity of its storage fields and operating performance, and to maintain its ability to provide no-notice service. See the bulletin board for details of OFO compliance.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood said the Commission would take the unusual action of hearing oral arguments in the high-profile complaint case pitting the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) against El Paso Corp. Wood said at the start of the Commission’s regular meeting last Wednesday that the arguments would be heard Dec. 2.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood said the Commission would take the unusual action of hearing oral arguments in the high-profile complaint case pitting the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) against El Paso Corp. Wood said at the start of the Commission’s regular meeting on Wednesday that the arguments would be heard Dec. 2. He gave no other details.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) has scheduled Aug. 8 to auction oil and gas leasehold rights on 218,000 acres of state forestland that are estimated to contain rich reserves of natural gas. Unlike previous oil and gas lease sales in which sealed paper bids were used, DCNR plans to conduct its first-ever online auction with the help of FreeMarkets Inc., based in Pittsburgh. Buyers may competitively bid on tracts anonymously in real time.

FirstEnergy filed a preliminary report last week with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, identifying possible causes for the major corrosion it first reported on March 13 that it had found during a regular inspection of the pressurized water nuclear reactor head at the Davis-Besse unit in Ohio. About 40 pounds of carbon steel was found to have been eaten away, leaving 3/8 inch of stainless steel covering the reactor head at the bottom of the corrosion cavity, creating a potential safety hazard.

The Oil & Gas Asset Clearinghouse, the Houston-based marketing and consulting firm for property acquisitions and divestitures, will hold its 14th hybrid live floor/Internet auction on Wednesday. More than 1,100 oil and gas properties will be combined into 123 lots. The hybrid auction enables Internet bidders to compete real-time against the live auction floor.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has tentatively scheduled its controversial Lease Sale 181 in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for Dec. 5 in New Orleans, LA.

California regulators instituted a blackout mitigation program among nonresidential customers in which they can schedule reductions of their power use during peak-demand hours in exchange for a fixed per-kilowatt-hour payment. The action by the California Public Utilities Commission is a smaller version of a proposal made earlier in the month by Houston-based Reliant Energy for a “negawatt” program that would include an auction of voluntarily reduced load, rather than a fixed payment amount.

California regulators Thursday instituted a blackout mitigation program among nonresidential customers in which they can schedule reductions of their power use during peak-demand hours in exchange for a fixed per-kilowatt-hour payment. The action by the California Public Utilities Commission is a smaller version of a proposal made earlier in the month by Houston-based Reliant Energy for a “negawatt” program that would include an auction of voluntarily reduced load, rather than a fixed payment amount.