Threat

Local distribution companies contending with tight gas supplies, volatile pricing and sometimes the threat of hurricane-related shut-ins do well to remember the virtues of diversity — specifically, diversity of supply, transportation and pricing strategies.

Local distribution companies contending with tight gas supplies, volatile pricing and sometimes the threat of hurricane-related shut-ins do well to remember the virtues of diversity — specifically, diversity of supply, transportation and pricing strategies.

Cash prices rode the twin wave of Hurricane Rita’s threat to already hurting Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production and a record-setting screen spike the day before to further large gains Tuesday. A moderate warming trend across the southern states also chipped in some renewed power generation load.

California’s energy future is balanced precariously between runaway costs and the threat of severe shortages, particularly in a “hotter-than-average” summer, according to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) draft 2005 “Integrated Energy Policy Report,” released last Friday. Touching on everything from global climate change to the cost of gasoline and growing reliance on natural gas, the 157-page report delivers a sobering message for Californians.

With Hurricane Emily looking like less and less of a threat for long-term Gulf of Mexico shut-ins, August natural gas futures traded within a thin 12-cent range Tuesday before settling at $7.586, down 6.6 cents on the day. While logging its second consecutive down session, the prompt month was unable to get below $7.50, which is acting as a support level.

The threat of after-the-fact rules, prosecutions and penalties has become so great that the rule-of-thumb on many trading floors is, “If you can make money at it, don’t do it,” industry witnesses told a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference on standards of conduct and market behavior rules for the natural gas and electric markets in Chicago Friday.

The “biggest threat” to the development of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals in the United States is the California regulators’ challenge to FERC’s jurisdiction in this area, said FERC Commissioner Joseph Kelliher in New Orleans Thursday.

FERC on Thursday said that it has resumed the receipt of mail from the U.S. Postal Service after the threat of possible anthrax contamination of mail in the Washington, DC, region proved to be false.

The “biggest threat” to the development of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals in the United States is the California regulators’ challenge to FERC’s jurisdiction in this area, said FERC Commissioner Joseph Kelliher in New Orleans Thursday.