Started

A joint venture of two major western natural gas utilities’ affiliates, Gill Ranch Storage LLC started construction Monday on a site near Fresno, CA, in the northern end of the state’s central valley. Its sponsors are targeting August this year for completion in time for the seasonal storage buildup ahead of next winter.

ExxonMobil Production Co. has resumed drilling on two wells started earlier this year at Point Thomson on Alaska’s North Slope and is on schedule to reach total depth by year-end 2010, the company said Wednesday.

This week’s market started out much like the previous one — with seemingly not enough cold weather overall to justify big price jumps, but traders managed to find enough demand anyway to drive spikes that occasionally reached about a dollar or more Monday.

The spot market may not be able to string together another five consecutive days of gains at most or all points like it did last week, but it started out this week in much the same fashion. Supported primarily by last Friday’s 23-cent increase in June futures and to a lesser extent by the return of industrial load from its usual weekend downturn, quotes rose at all but one point Monday.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced recently it has started up regular operations at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Boron, CA, the largest LNG production plant in the Southwest producing vehicle grade fuel and the first large-scale plant in California. At the same time the company is seeing its compressed natural gas (CNG) business expand in the far Southwest.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced recently it has started up regular operations at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Boron, CA, the largest LNG production plant in the Southwest producing vehicle grade fuel and the first large-scale plant in California. At the same time the company is seeing its compressed natural gas (CNG) business expand in the far Southwest.

Dallas-based Stream Energy has started enrolling customers in Georgia after the state’s Public Service Commission approved the company to provide natural gas in areas within the Atlanta Gas Light service area, including Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Athens, Rome, Valdosta, Augusta and Brunswick. The company said Georgia is an important first step in its long-range plan to take its successful business and marketing plan to other states. Since Stream Energy began operations in Texas in 2005 it has signed up more than 300,00 customers there. Through the company’s “Friends and Family” approach, Stream Energy’s wholly owned Ignite marketing arm empowers independent associates to sign up customers.

While other proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects started earlier and are further along in the siting process, Vancouver, WA-based Oregon LNG may catch up given that its permitting already has been cleared by the state land-use appeals process. The other two Oregon projects still face that oversight, which is expected to be contested by opponents of the two projects — NorthernStar Natural Gas’s Bradwood Landing site along the Columbia River and Jordan Cove in Coos Bay along the south-central Oregon coast.

While other proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects started earlier and are further along in the siting process, Vancouver, WA-based Oregon LNG may catch up given that its permitting already has been cleared by the state land-use appeals process. The other two Oregon projects still face that oversight, which is expected to be contested by opponents of the two projects — NorthernStar Natural Gas’s Bradwood Landing site along the Columbia River and Jordan Cove in Coos Bay along the south-central Oregon coast.