Stab

Canada’s federal Conservative government has deflected a first stab at obtaining special corporate tax breaks for liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, but supporters vow to keep on trying.

Powered by uncertainty on where Hurricane Katrina’s second landfall will be, September natural gas futures on Friday made another stab at the psychological $10 level. Ahead of its expiration on Monday, the contract matched Wednesday’s $10.02 high, but once again failed to test the all-time regular session high of $10.10.

El Paso Natural Gas has decided to take another stab at expanding its constrained Bondad system. It has asked FERC for the green light to undertake a mainline compression upgrade to add up to 140,000 Mcf/d of firm transportation capacity on the system, bringing total capacity to 725,500 Mcf/d.

El Paso Natural Gas has decided to take another stab at expanding its constrained Bondad system. It has asked FERC for the green light to undertake a mainline compression upgrade to add up to 140,000 Mcf/d of firm transportation capacity on the system, bringing total capacity to 725,500 Mcf/d.

In its first major stab at Enron-related reform, the House last week overwhelmingly approved legislation that would give the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) expanded authority over corporations, create a new public regulatory board to oversee accountants, and demand greater corporate disclosure.

Believing in the saying that “if at first you don’t succeed, tryagain,” El Paso began a new open season Friday to solicit interestin firm service agreements to move gas on an expansion of theBondad Line in the San Juan Basin. A previous attempt at a Bondadexpansion ultimately broke down after FERC rejected some of thetariff provisions last year, leading the primary expansion shipperto withdraw from the project and FERC to vacate its projectcertification (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7, 1998; Oct. 19, 1998; Dec. 11,1998; and Jan. 18, 1999).

Believing in the saying that “if at first you don’t succeed, tryagain,” El Paso began a new open season Friday to solicit interestin firm service agreements to move gas on an expansion of theBondad Line in San Juan Basin. A previous attempt at a Bondadexpansion ultimately broke down after FERC rejected some of thetariff provisions last year, leading the primary expansion shipperto withdraw from the project and FERC to vacate its projectcertification (see NGI, Sept. 7, 1998; Oct. 19, 1998; Dec. 14,1998; and Jan. 18, 1999).

May cash prices made a stab at climbing a little higherWednesday, and indeed, one trader said he was “still struggling” tobuy Sonat gas with offers in the low $2.30s. But other sources,while agreeing there was an early push for higher prices, said thenumbers were starting to soften again in the afternoon. “Everybodywent to lunch and then things fell apart,” as a marketer put it.