Sweeping

A winter storm sweeping through the South, along with freezingtemperatures expected to last through the weekend in much of theU.S. from the Rockies eastward, resulted in rising prices at nearlyall points Friday.

FERC has ordered a sweeping review of the allocation, schedulingand pooling procedures on El Paso Natural Gas. The Commission tookthis action in response to a producer-marketer complaint assailingthe pipeline for its atypical method of allocating capacity atdelivery points at the California Border. Last week, FERC not onlyfound that these practices “may be unjust and unreasonable,” but itexpanded the scope of the proceeding to include the pipeline’sallocation methods at receipt points and its scheduling and poolingprocedures.

Conectiv, a Mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility, announcedsweeping changes in its strategic focus earlier this week, but didnot alter its plan for gas operations. Conectiv said the changeswere made due to a clearing regulatory picture in the areas itserves.

FERC is expected to announce the long-awaited outcome of itssweeping FERC First review to staff members at various “townmeetings” within the Commission beginning this Wednesday, but it’sunclear if the results will be publicly disclosed this week.