Summer

Columbia Gas plans will begin Wednesday a rotating shut-in of interrruptible production that will continue through the summer at the A05-Delmont aggregation point in the southern part of Market Area 36. This is due to excessive line pressure resulting from decreased market requirements, the pipeline said. Columbia’s field personnel will notify affected producers.

Quebec isn’t known for its natural gas production and there’s a good reason for that: there’s only one field with just one producing well in the whole province and it’s been out of service since April 2002. However, Junex, which holds 3.5 million acres under exploration permits in the province with proven reserves of over 728 MMcf/d, said it is about to bring the Galt field near Gaspé back online next month at a relatively high rate.

Sparked by warmer than normal weather last summer and colder than normal weather last fall, NiSource Inc. posted income from continuing operations for 2002 of $425.7 million, or $2.02 per share, compared to $226.4 million, or $1.10 per share, in fiscal year 2001. Net income for 2002 was $372.5 million, or $1.77 per share, compared to $216.2 million, or $1.05 per share, in 2001.

The outlook for water available for hydroelectric generation in the Pacific Northwest this summer was dropped in late December by U.S. government forecasters, who indicated that water available at the Dalles Hydroelectric Dam on the Columbia River between January and July will likely be 75% of normal. However, the day the report was issued (Dec. 27), a heavy rain and snow storm was pounding the area.

Undeterred by the combination of telecommunications and energy industry financial meltdowns this year, an affiliate of San Diego-based Sempra Energy still expects a slow but steady growth in its seven-patent-ending “fiber links” technology for threading fiber optic cable through natural gas distribution pipeline mains and service lines in dense urban commercial and suburban residential areas. The president and several other senior executives with Sempra Fiber Links were in Portland, OR, Monday at a national meeting of state regulators, pitching their system as being a fast, safe, less costly and environmentally more benign means of bringing fiber optics to commercial and residential areas that are among more than 90% of the nation that is still dependent on copper phone wires.

With a fourth expansion set to be finished this summer, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility unit earlier this month completed three other expansions of its transmission/storage system. Collectively the enhancements will boost SoCal’s system by 11% or 375 MMcf/d.

WSI Corp. said it expect warmer-than-normal temperatures for much of the country with the exception the Pacific Coast and in the Southeast over the next three months. The warmest temperatures, relative to normal, are expected in the central Plains and Northeast, while the coolest temperatures, relative to normal, are expected along the California coast.

Several electricity providers that participated in the Texas pilot deregulation program last summer admitted Wednesday to the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) that they had overscheduled power in the first few weeks of the pilot, costing the state $29 million. Reliant Energy Services, TXU Electric, American Electric Power Service, Mirant Americas Energy Marketing, Constellation Power Source and another unnamed company are being investigated by PUC to see whether they should be fined for hedging — even though it apparently was allowed at the time.

In a surprising announcement last week, California’s Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) revealed that it fired an employee Monday for violating the grid operator’s rules by seeking a specific bid and price from Enron Corp. The issue surfaced last week from some state legislative subpoenaed tape recordings from Enron Corp. The incident at this point is thought to be an isolated case with a market impact of less than $100,000. No criminal or civil charges are contemplated at this time.