Stephen

The gas storage surplus could have a bite taken out of it this week, according to consultant Stephen Smith, who’s predicting only a 17 Bcf injection in the weekly report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Furthermore, Smith believes that this week’s storage report, which he expects will show 3,459 Bcf of working gas in storage as of Oct. 20, may end up being the peak level of working gas for the injection season because of the early cold weather.

El Paso Corp.’s Stephen C. Beasley said open season results on the company’s proposed Colorado-to-Mississippi Continental Connector pipeline project “validated what we thought would be the appropriate outcome.” The company received preliminary expressions of interest for about 3 Bcf/d of firm transportation capacity on the pipeline, which would deliver production from the Rockies, Midcontinent and East Texas to markets in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest.

Energy policymakers are quickly headed for disaster this winter, said DTE Energy Gas President Stephen Ewing, the 2006 chairman of the American Gas Association. He said the magnitude of the situation will dawn on the nation’s 52 million natural gas consumers when they get their gas bills about mid-December and see massive cost increases. But there is still time for the industry to do something about it.

Stephen A. Furbacher, longtime executive vice president of Dynegy Inc.’s Midstream natural gas business, has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. Furbacher, 57, whose Midstream unit has been sold to Targa Resources, had announced earlier this month that he would retire after 30 years at Dynegy (see Power Market Today, Aug. 3). Furbacher agreed to defer his retirement after Alec G. Dreyer, power generation executive vice president, announced earlier this week he was resigning to pursue other interests. Furbacher will add Dreyer’s power generation responsibilities to his midstream operations oversight. He will continue to report directly to Bruce A. Williamson, Dynegy’s chairman and CEO.

FERC’s Stephen Harvey, along with the publishers of natural gas price indexes and other industry experts will participate on a panel discussing gas index pricing at a workshop session prior to the Minerals Management Services’ Industry Awards Program on April 26 in Houston, TX. The panelists will explore whether published gas price indexes in the U.S. have sufficient liquidity, transparency and accuracy to represent the value of gas commodities in the current marketplace. The program, which will begin at 8:30 a.m., will be held at the Houston InterContinental Hotel at 2222 West Loop South in Houston. There will be no cost to attend the panel discussion. Reservations for the awards luncheon can be made at www.mms.gov

President Bush announced the nomination Friday of a new top administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Stephen Johnson, a 24-year EPA veteran who has served as acting administrator since January. The move was a departure from the recent practice of naming a more visible political figure to the top job and did not sit well with some environmentalists.

With normal cooling degree and heating degree days in the third and fourth quarters, Stephen Smith Energy Associates estimates in its latest Monthly Energy Outlook that third quarter Henry Hub natural gas prices will average $5.82/Mcf and fourth quarter prices will be $5.62, yielding an average annual forecast of $5.80 for 2004. If the estimate holds, gas prices would average 40 cents higher than in 2003.

Acting Enron Corp. CEO Stephen Cooper said Thursday he expects the court hearings on Enron’s reorganization plan to take about a week, and barring any legal glitches, expects the plan to be approved. Although it still faces hundreds of lawsuits, Enron could emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year.

The latest “Monthly Energy Outlook” by analyst Stephen Smith and staff found that the recent spike in natural gas prices “appears overdone,” but the tighter weekly supply/demand balance of the past few weeks justified some of the hike. However, gas prices should moderate going into 2004 and be lower on average than those in 2003.