Shield

Faced with the “deterioration of [the] financial soundness” of certain natural gas shippers on its system, Questar Pipeline Co. is proposing tariff changes that would protect itself financially in the event firm capacity is released by non-creditworthy or insolvent shippers.

Faced with the “deterioration of [the] financial soundness” of certain natural gas shippers on its system, Questar Pipeline Co. is proposing tariff changes that would protect itself financially in the event firm capacity is released by non-creditworthy or insolvent shippers.

In the wake of “recent upheavals in the gas industry” that have prompted severe credit downgrades of energy traders and others, Tennessee Gas Pipeline has proposed broad changes to its transportation tariff to protect it and its paying pipeline customers from the financial risks posed by insolvent or non-creditworthy shippers.

In an effort to protect jurisdictional companies from having their cash funds siphoned off by parent firms facing bankruptcy or other financial troubles, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week proposed a rule that would set limits on the involvement of regulated public utilities and natural gas and oil pipelines in intra-corporate cash management programs, or money pools.

In an effort to protect jurisdictional companies from having their cash funds siphoned off by parent firms facing bankruptcy or other financial troubles, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week proposed a rule that would set limits on the involvement of regulated public utilities and natural gas and oil pipelines in intra-corporate cash management programs, or money pools.

The gas and power industries are going to have to develop products on the retail level to shield consumers from the volatility of the wholesale market, FERC Commissioner Nora Meade Brownell told an Energy Bar Association audience last week.

Under the shield of anonymity, an economist for a national think tank and a leader in the California legislature spoke candidly last Friday to the spring general meeting of the Western Power Trading Forum in Ojai, CA, concluding for different reasons that political and economic issues have so far stymied the creation of a broadly supported short-term fix to the state’s electricity woes.

Major producers, who usually have chemical and other businessesto shield them somewhat from weak commodity prices, obviously wereleft unprotected during the third quarter. They’re suffering underlow oil and gas prices right along side the independents.