Targeting

Targeting the expanding Barnett Shale and Bossier Sands plays, Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) will expand two of its major Texas intrastate gas pipeline systems, the company said Tuesday.

SEMCO Energy Gas Co. said Thursday that it is alerting customers of possible deceptive marketing tactics targeting natural gas customers in the utility’s service areas. The company said it has received complaints of customers being contacted by people claiming to be marketing natural gas contracts to residential and business customers and implying they are associated with SEMCO Energy. SEMCO Energy said it does not solicit residential or commercial customers for natural gas contracts and is urging its customers to be “extremely cautious” about any personal information they provide in telephone solicitations. The utility advised customers who have questions about being contacted by someone representing SEMCO Energy to call 1-800-624-2019.Customers of the utility have the option to buy their natural gas from a third-party provider, however, SEMCO Energy said it does not solicit customers to sign up for the customer choice program. The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) provides a list of all natural gas marketers licensed in Michigan on the MPSC website: http://www.cis.state.mi.us/mpsc/gas/choice.htm. The site includes a tab showing eligible customer choice marketers active in SEMCO Energy’s service areas. The utility distributes natural gas to more than 400,000 customers combined in Michigan, as SEMCO Energy Gas Co. and in Alaska, as ENSTAR Natural Gas Co.

The natural gas industry needs to spend more time targeting members of Congress who aren’t traditionally viewed as energy-friendly, said a top staff member for Oklahoma Democrat Rep. Dan. Boren Thursday.

The natural gas industry needs to spend more time targeting members of Congress who aren’t traditionally viewed as energy-friendly, said a top staff member for Oklahoma Democrat Rep. Dan. Boren Thursday.

Environmental groups are targeting Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) in a series of print and radio advertisements for his decision to support a GOP-crafted compromise that would establish a 125-mile, no-drill buffer zone around Florida in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Environmental groups are targeting Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) in a series of print and radio advertisements for his decision to support a GOP-crafted compromise that would establish a 125-mile, no-drill buffer zone around Florida in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

In the government’s highest profile case targeting false energy price reporting, a former Dynegy Inc. trader and a former El Paso Corp. trader are being tried this week in Houston on charges that they reported bogus transactions to industry publications. The case, which culminates more than three years of work by the government, is being closely watched because it’s believed to be the first time the Depression-era Commodity Exchange Act has been used against a member of the energy industry in a criminal court.

The Department of Energy awarded $3.3 million to seven cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects targeting new technologies that can help producers tap the 169-187 Tcf of deep gas deposits (greater than 15,000-20,000 feet beneath the earth’s surface) located in the United States.

Vancouver-based Encore Clean Energy Inc. is targeting the oil and natural gas production industry with new technologies that allow producers to use their wastewater and other byproducts to produce power for operations.