Surrounding

Reviving images of the summer of 2000 in San Diego, Southwest Gas Corp. customers in the surrounding mountain communities east of Los Angeles turned out in relatively large numbers for a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) public hearing Tuesday night in Big Bear Lake, CA, objecting to the Las Vegas-based utility’s rates last year.

In addition to the shock surrounding the latest on the unraveling of market-maker Enron, natural gas traders and market watchers were rocked again Wednesday by another in a string of bearish reports by the American Gas Association. The group announced that 12 Bcf was injected into underground storage facilities for the week ending Nov. 23, bringing gas levels to a record 3,144 Bcf. In a fitting twist, December natural gas futures spiraled lower on the news, surpassing previous lows reached early in 1999, just weeks after storage levels had crested a new peak (at that time) of 3,127 Bcf.

After various fits and starts surrounding the issue over a number of months, California regulators Thursday established an alternative demand stand-by charge, called a “peaking rate,” for Southern California Gas Co., which could open up the utility to “economic bypass” by interstate pipeline projects lined up and ready to go at the border. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejected the utility’s own proposal as “anti-competitive.”

California regulators this week could start to lessen some of the uncertainty surrounding the in-state markets in the first of a series of natural gas infrastructure expansion decisions that ultimately could greatly expand the two major utility intra-state transmission/storage systems and make it easier for new interstate expansion projects into the state to get completed.

California regulators this week could start to remove some of the uncertainty surrounding the in-state markets in the first of a series of natural gas infrastructure decisions that ultimately could greatly expand the two major utility intrastate transmission/storage systems.

Alberta Energy Company (AEC) has pulled the Manchester GasStorage Facility in Oklahoma out of the legal quagmire surroundingthe Mountain Energy bankruptcy. AEC subsidiary Salt Plains StorageInc. purchased Manchester, which is located in Grant County, OK,for $42 million last month.

Alberta Energy Company (AEC) has pulled the Manchester GasStorage Facility in Oklahoma out of the legal quagmire surroundingthe Mountain Energy bankruptcy. AEC subsidiary Salt Plains StorageInc. purchased Manchester, which is located in Grant County, OK,for $42 million last month.

Lost in the higher profile aspects of California’s chronicpage-one headlines surrounding its energy crisis is the statelegislature’s inclusion of a ban on retail direct access powerdeals, dealing the few remaining nonutility power retailers whatcould be a death blow unless a corrective legislative solution isfound. That corrective action was pursued last week when the headof the state Senate energy committee, state Sen. Debra Bowen,proposed to reinstitute retail energy sales (SB 27X) as part of themeasures being tossed around in the second month of a special statelegislative session called by the governor to address theemergency.

In the midst of much uncertainty surrounding California’s powersituation, Duke Energy North America Monday reiterated itscommitment to the state’s struggling wholesale electricity market,announcing new bilateral power deals with Pacific Gas and ElectricCo. and progress with redevelopment plans at three coastal powerplant sites it is operating.