Solutions

As a promotional and lobbying gesture, Mitsubishi Corp.-backed Sound Energy Solutions (SES) committed late Tuesday that its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Long Beach, CA, harbor will meet all of the new LNG safety standards released earlier in the month by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT). The new rules, however, won’t require any change in design or plans for the receiving terminal, said SES’s Long Beach-based chief executive Tom Giles.

As a promotional and lobbying gesture, Mitsubishi Corp.-backed Sound Energy Solutions (SES) committed late Tuesday that its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Long Beach, CA, harbor will meet all of the new LNG safety standards released earlier in the month by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT). The new rules, however, won’t require any change in design or plans for the receiving terminal, said SES’s Long Beach-based chief executive Tom Giles.

With questions continuing to swirl around the sustainability of domestic natural gas production, the list of solutions for appeasing the U.S.’s growing gas appetite can be narrowed to either increasing liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports or opening up drilling on gas-rich federally restricted lands.

Talisman Energy Inc. said last week that it purchased all the shares of Vista Midstream Solutions Ltd. for C$130 million (US$94 million), giving it important gathering and processing assets in a core area adjacent to its Deep Basin play in northwestern Alberta. Talisman said the other assets included in the purchase are being resold.

The House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses, the Sustainable Energy Coalition, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) will hold a Capitol Hill briefing next week to address near-term energy efficiency and renewable energy alternatives that could help to head off a potential natural gas supply crisis.

Following the announcement earlier in the day that it had unloaded its CMS Viron Energy Services to Chevron Energy Solutions (see related story), CMS Energy reported Wednesday evening that it has also completed the sale of its CMS Field Services subsidiary to Cantera Natural Gas Inc.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) urged President Bush last week to “declare war on high natural gas prices” and invoke his emergency executive power to “bring about the short-term regulatory changes needed to reduce the threat of natural gas shortages and prevent sustained high price levels that are dismantling the nation’s manufacturing base.”

In preparation for an emergency summit later this week of the National Petroleum Council (NPC) on natural gas issues, the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) sent Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham a list of short- and medium-term recommendations on how to deal with the “natural gas crisis that is dismantling the nation’s manufacturing base.”

Concerns about the amount of cash that Dynegy Inc. and its subsidiaries will be able to generate, and the continuing worries about the energy merchant’s ability to refinance debt obligations not due until next year, led Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the Houston-based company’s credit ratings on Thursday. Those included in the latest cuts were parent corporation Dynegy Inc., Dynegy Holdings Inc., the primary operating subsidiary, and that of Illinois Power, its largest utility.