Seriously

With Hurricane Ivan now seriously threatening Gulf of Mexico production, natural gas futures jumped off the charts Monday morning in preparation for the possibility of prolonged natural gas and oil rig shut-ins.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings subsidiary Northern Natural Gas said five employees were injured, none seriously, in an explosion and fire Tuesday morning at its Bushton Compressor Station in central Kansas. The company said the explosion did not disrupt market deliveries but gas did have to be rerouted around the station.

The IPAA’s Supply and Demand Committee said a rig and drilling workforce shortage is seriously hindering a supply response to soaring gas prices, and the problem is likely to continue in 2001.

The IPAA’s Supply and Demand Committee said a rig and drillingworkforce shortage is seriously hindering a supply response tosoaring gas prices, and the problem is likely to continue in 2001.

Depending on who you ask, KN Energy’s (KN) choice gas program inNebraska was either a raving success or a seriously flawedoperation. Results indicate 100,000 people participated in thetwo-year program, which concluded last month. While KN was pleasedwith the turn-out, other involved parties have joined together in alawsuit accusing the Colorado-based company of breaking antitrustlaws and creating a monopoly by setting up unfair market advantagesfor itself and its affiliate, KN Gas Services.

Depending on who you ask, KN Energy’s (KN) choice gas program inNebraska was either a raving success or a seriously flawedoperation. Results indicate 100,000 people participated in thetwo-year program, which concluded last month. While KN was pleasedwith the turn-out, other involved parties have joined together in alawsuit accusing the Colorado-based company of breaking antitrustlaws and creating a monopoly by setting up unfair market advantagesfor itself and its affiliate, KN Gas Services.

The four gas trade associations are seriously considering askingFERC this week to extend by 74 days the deadline for industrycomments on the major notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) andnotice of inquiry (NOI) that were issued in July.

El Paso Natural Gas has asked FERC to overturn a July ALJinitial decision that found it failed to “seriously confront thepotential impact of…turned-back capacity on the remainingcustomers on its system and take adequate steps to remarket thecapacity” when it first learned that Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) planned to step down its capacity commitment effective January1996. If upheld by the Commission, El Paso would be required toshoulder the costs for half of the 300 MMcf/d of capacity that theLDC turned back.