Status

FERC’s conference on the status of price reporting produced a face-off Friday between price index publishers and the director of enforcement for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a confrontation indicative of the intensity of the behind-the-scenes legal battles being fought by the publishers to maintain confidentiality of their sources.

Undaunted by the jurisdictional fight between California and FERC over the siting of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, the lead executive for Mitsubishi Corp.’s efforts to build a LNG terminal in Long Beach Harbor said Wednesday that his firm is pushing ahead with environmental reviews at the federal agency after filing last week for a rehearing of a state regulators’ attempt in April to force the project under state regulatory oversight as a “public utility.”

FERC on Thursday ordered Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line and affiliate Williams Gas Processing – Gulf Coast Co. (WGP) to show cause why the agency should not reverse an August 2001 ruling that found part of Transco’s pipeline network located onshore and offshore Louisiana to be unregulated gathering and eligible to be spun down to WGP.

FERC on Thursday ordered Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line and affiliate Williams Gas Processing – Gulf Coast Co. (WGP) to show cause why the agency should not reverse an August 2001 ruling that found part of Transco’s pipeline network located onshore and offshore Louisiana to be unregulated gathering and eligible to be spun down to WGP.

Fitch Ratings cut the credit ratings of PSEG Energy Holdings to junk Monday because of the company’s weak earnings relative to debt, and the risks inherent in its portfolio of international and financial assets. Fitch cut PSEG Energy Holdings’ senior unsecured ratings to BB, the second highest junk rating, from BBB-minus, and kept a negative outlook on company.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has come under fire at FERC for a proposed tariff filing that would allow the pipe to terminate a replacement shipper’s capacity contract if the original shipper who released the capacity was found to be a credit risk and its contract dissolved. Tennessee could then subject the replacement shipper’s capacity to open-season bidding by other potential shippers.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has come under fire at FERC for a proposed tariff filing that would allow the pipe to terminate a replacement shipper’s capacity contract if the original shipper who released the capacity was found to be a credit risk and its contract dissolved. Tennessee could then subject the replacement shipper’s capacity to open-season bidding by other potential shippers.

There was no change in status Tuesday for a CIG rupture that occurred Sunday night in Weld County, CO (see Daily GPI, March 25), according to a pipeline spokesman. The company still anticipates there will be no interruptions in service and will post a bulletin board notice when repairs are completed, he said.

While the creditworthiness status of many energy companies is on life support due to the economic downturn in the industry and rash of scandals, the industry’s interest in using clearinghouses to jump-start sluggish trading appears to be lukewarm at this stage, said industry and clearinghouse representatives last week. More important are finishing the standardized market process and the western markets proceeding, giving some stable guidelines as to how business can be conducted, some believe.