Tightly

For producers last week, the jury was still out on how the Obama administration’s legislative package to tightly regulate the $500 trillion over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market would impact them, but there was some cautious relief.

Tightly held Targa Resources Inc. plans to spin off its North Texas midstream assets, which include 3,950 miles of integrated natural gas gathering pipelines, two natural gas processing plants and a fractionator in the Fort Worth area, through an initial public offering (IPO) of 16.8 million common units.

While more tightly integrating natural gas pipeline operations for its two California-based utilities, San Diego-based Sempra Energy is prepared to spend at least $200 million upgrading its transmission backbone with a new “vision” of having up to 2 Bcf/d of capacity in the southern half of the state to open up to new supply sources. The utilities are hoping for multi-million-dollar, if not “billion-dollar” savings for customers.

While more tightly integrating natural gas pipeline operations for its two California-based utilities, San Diego-based Sempra Energy is prepared to spend at least $200 upgrading its transmission backbone with a new “vision” of having up to 2 Bcf/d of capacity in the southern half of the state to open up to new supply sources. The utilities are hoping for multi-million-dollar, if not “billion-dollar” savings for customers.

The California state legislature’s chief advocate for a return to tightly regulated energy utilities absent retail customer choice programs told a legislative committee session Wednesday that natural gas could prove the next serious energy problem for the nation’s most populous state — perhaps as early as this fall or the coming winter. Increasing reliance on gas derivatives is at the heart of the problem, according to the legislator.

While FERC’s regulatory gas options paper so far has been kepttightly under wraps, Commissioner Curt L. Hebert Jr. clearly is nothiding his views on some of the most important issues theCommission will face over the next few years. In an articlepublished in the Energy Law Journal, Hebert begins to tackle thequestion of how the Commission can “develop incentives that willspur the industry to act more competitively.”