Successful

In a demonstration aimed at helping cut diesel fuel emissions in the Port of Oakland, CA, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday the successful use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in a power-production process used on docked cargo ships to supply all of their electricity needs while in port. The utility called it a “milestone” in starting to clean up the air in and around the port.

Following a successful open season, Williams’ Northwest Pipeline last Thursday said it is proposing to construct its new 33-mile Colorado Hub Connection Project (CHC), which would provide transportation service from the Greasewood and Meeker hubs located in Rio Blanco County, CO, to a location near Sand Springs, CO, which has various pipeline interconnects and Northwest’s existing system to access western markets.

Following a successful open season, Williams’ Northwest Pipeline on Thursday said it is proposing to construct its new 33-mile Colorado Hub Connection Project (CHC), which would provide transportation service from the Greasewood and Meeker hubs located in Rio Blanco County, CO, to a location near Sand Springs, CO, which has various pipeline interconnects and Northwest’s existing system to access western markets.

While it has been reported that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) wants to get a piece of Sempra Energy’s successful energy trading business, RBS might want to consider what the San Diego-based holding company has said previously: partnership is a possibility, but a sale is not.

After trying to break below $7.10 for the last couple of weeks, natural gas futures traders were finally successful Friday as the prompt month notched a low of $7.060 before closing at $7.083, down 15.6 cents on the day and 16 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close. Traders on Friday continued to battle entrenched support, but unlike previous attempts that sparked rallies, the bulls were not able to answer the call this time.

Successful natural gas futures trading often depends on correctly determining what “story” the market is telling on a particular day, according to Sandy “Trot” Goldfarb, a 20-plus-year trading veteran. Speaking at NGI’s Natural Gas Futures Prices Workshop at the New York Mercantile Exchange last week, Trot said the plot of recent price movements indicates that there could be more room to the upside in this market.

An Idaho renewable alternative energy technology firm announced Tuesday a successful gas quality test for its system of producing biogas from dairy manure, turning it into what the company claims is another form of pipeline-quality natural gas. Officials of Intrepid Technology and Resources, Inc. in Idaho Falls, ID, officials said the firm is now prepared to make its first commercial delivery of manure-to-gas supplies to the local utility, Intermountain Gas Co.

After what it has characterized as a successful, targeted use of automatic meter reading (AMR) technology in remote, hard-to-access areas, Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp. late last month announced it intends to totally automate more than 1.7 million natural gas meters in the three principal metropolitan areas it serves in Nevada and Arizona. Southwest expects to complete the installation in 2009.

Underscoring FERC’s successful track record in quickly acting on merger proposals, FERC Commissioner Joseph Kelliher last Thursday said that he doesn’t think it makes sense for the federal agency to alter its existing approach to merger applications.