Thing

Tropical Storm Bill was leaving relatively little shut-in offshore production in its wake Monday afternoon as it moved over the Louisiana coast. Meanwhile, flatness at the Chicago citygate and Dawn were the only significant exceptions in an overall stronger launch of the July aftermarket. Otherwise, points ranged from up about a nickel to nearly 40 cents higher. A majority of the gains were in the range of 10-20 cents.

“Too little gas in storage is a very dangerous thing,” Houston analyst Arthur Gelber, told attendees at the LDC Forum in Atlanta last Tuesday.

“Too little gas in storage is a very dangerous thing,” Houston analyst Arthur Gelber, told attendees at the LDC Forum in Atlanta Tuesday.

Assets may be sold, the domestic and global power plant expansions may be curtailed, but one thing is certain: Mirant has no intention of exiting the risk marketing and trading arena.

Growth in any industry is considered a good thing, right? In most cases, that’s true, but the rapid growth of service territories for many U.S. electric transmission and distribution (T&D) investor-owned utilities (IOU) has led to significant credit pressure because of the two-fold dilemma they sometimes face in adding new customers, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

An Alaska natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48 is far from a sure thing, but Petro-Canada appears to be hedging its bets that one day gas eventually will move south. The Calgary-based producer, with a high bid of $8.5 million, won the right to lease 179 tracts of gas-rich property that cascades through the southern foothills of the North Slope in Alaska’s largest lease sale to date, acreage-wise. More important to Petro-Canada, the acreage boosts its North Slope potential to 1.3 million acres the company won 56 tracts in the same region just last year.

While federal regulators may be a bit “bearish” on natural gas pipeline projects, that’s a good thing, according to PG&E Gas Transmission Northwest, which is still waiting for its final okay from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on environmental safeguards for its certificated 2002 pipeline expansion in Idaho and a small part of Washington state. It expects the final, final okay by the end of this week.

Spring is not the only thing currently in the air, as merger and acquisition activity continues at the rapid pace set during 2000. Midland, TX-based Pure Resources Inc. and Denver, CO-based Hallwood Energy Corp. announced they have signed a definitive merger agreement in which subsidiary Pure Resources II will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hallwood common stock at a price of $12.50/share.

Spring is not the only thing currently in the air, as merger andacquisition activity continues at the rapid pace set during 2000.Midland, TX-based Pure Resources Inc. and Denver, CO-based HallwoodEnergy Corp. announced they have signed a definitive mergeragreement in which subsidiary Pure Resources II will acquire all ofthe outstanding shares of Hallwood common stock at a price of$12.50/share.