Studying

While federal and state officials have rehashed and are still studying the details, the severe freeze and resulting natural gas customer shutoffs last February in the Southwest have left local distribution utilities to deal with rancor in communities in which both homes and businesses were affected. One small town, Bernalillo, NM, has sued its local utility.

Natural gas has been turning up in North Dakota water wells for generations, and for the last four years geologists there have been studying its occurrence in observation water wells with the possibility in mind that it could be a viable commercial resource.

Natural gas has been turning up in North Dakota water wells for generations, and for the last four years geologists there have been studying its occurrence in observation water wells with the possibility in mind that it could be a viable commercial resource.

After studying Kansas City-based Aquila Inc.’s finances exhaustively, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) said last week that the debt-burdened company may have no other choice than to divest some or all of its domestic utilities in order to fix its balance sheet.

After studying Kansas City-based Aquila Inc.’s finances exhaustively, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) said Tuesday the debt-burdened company may have no other choice than to divest some or all of its domestic utilities in order to fix its balance sheet.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino on Tuesday said the city was studying the prospect of taking legal action to stop tankers laden with liquefied natural gas (LNG) from entering Boston Harbor following a new federal study that found that a terrorist attack on an LNG vessel could cause major injuries and structural damage from the intense heat.

After studying the financial and operational situations of 15major oil and gas producers, the international credit agency FitchIBCA recently published a report indicating the industry isrebounding from the financially depressed timeframe between 1998and early 1999, but new challenges are just around the corner.