Signaled

Senate leaders Thursday signaled that energy will be a priority item for the chamber, but they will move more deliberatively on the issue than House Democrats, who plan to vote on an energy package Jan. 18.

Shippers responding to Duke Energy Gas Transmission’s (DEGT) open season on its Algonquin pipeline system have signaled that they may need more than 2 Bcf/d of new natural gas pipeline capacity to meet the demands of the growing Northeast market, the company said last Thursday.

Shippers responding to Duke Energy Gas Transmission’s (DEGT) open season on its Algonquin pipeline system have signaled that they may need more than 2 Bcf/d of new natural gas pipeline capacity to meet the demands of the growing Northeast market, the company said Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) signaled that he will schedule debate this month on a bill based on a deal negotiated by Republicans Wednesday that would open up eight million acres in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas leasing and would allow sharing of federal royalties from offshore production with four Gulf coastal states.

President Bush signaled Wednesday that he is open to some of the offshore drilling proposals floating around on Capitol Hill provided they do not allow drilling closer than 100 miles to shore.

FERC on Thursday dismissed challenges to a January order that, in a reversal of policy, signaled the agency’s willingness to allow interstate natural gas pipelines to use basis differential pricing in negotiated-rate transactions with shippers.

Prominent religious leaders and educators in the United States, in an “open statement” to policymakers last week, signaled their opposition to the expansion of oil and natural gas drilling on public lands.

After consulting with the agency’s ethics official, FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher has signaled that he will not recuse himself from voting on the proposed Broadwater Energy LLC liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project and associated pipeline facilities, despite calls by three congressional Democrats from New York to do so.

In a long-awaited rehearing order on its negotiated-rate policy, FERC last Thursday signaled its willingness to allow interstate natural gas pipelines to enter into negotiated-rate transactions with shippers that reference “basis,” or the difference between natural gas price indexes at two market locations.