Time

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Monday filed a final report on its reclassification of its pipelines, but it said validating operating pressures will take more time. As result of the latest effort, nearly 10% of the utility’s natural gas transmission pipelines (544 miles, or 2,837 segments) had classifications changed.

For the third time, California regulators Thursday gave the green light to Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) to embark on a proposed $1 billion, multi-year transition to an advanced metering system consistent with what all of the state’s other private-sector utilities have been doing the past five years.

The Texas Supreme Court has for a second time reversed a court of appeals judgement in a case involving a pipeline company’s use of eminent domain for a public use project and has remanded the case to a district court “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

A local ordinance that bans oil and gas operations in the Town of Middlefield, NY, has been upheld by the Otsego County Supreme Court, the second time in a week that a New York state judge has ruled in favor of such a law.

For the second time this month Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Wednesday admitted in a filing with state regulators that it violated federal and state safety testing standards for a part of its distribution pipeline system in San Mateo, CA, within a few miles of the September, 2010 San Bruno transmission pipeline rupture and explosion. PG&E said it discovered the violation on part of an eight-inch diameter distribution feeder line Jan. 26, and took “immediate corrective action” the following day. The combination utility explained its error in a letter to Michelle Cooke, interim director of the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) Consumer Protection and Safety Division. Under federal Department of Transportation standards and PG&E’s own state-mandated rules, pipe-to-soil measurements for corrosion must be completed every 75 days. The feeder main had last been tested Oct. 5 and should have been retested by the end of 2011. “Due to error and oversight, PG&E did not identify this issue as ‘reportable’ under the CPUC [rules] until after 10 days had elapsed,” the utility told the CPUC.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., the second largest natural gas producer in the United States, has shut in 1 Bcf/d gross through October, CEO Aubrey McClendon told investors on Wednesday.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is joining its brethren in staking out liquids-rich shale development in North America while at the same time it works to leverage value from its extensive natural gas portfolio, executives said last week.

Energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. on Tuesday once again cut their outlook for 2012 U.S. natural gas prices, this time by a quarter to $3.25/Mcf. To those awaiting a recovery in gas prices the analysts advised, “Don’t hold your breath.”

For the second time since its ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing was ruled illegal, the Morgantown City Council voted to table a decision to repeal the ban in order to make a “political statement” against the West Virginia state government.