Touting

Touting its third quarter financial results as an indication that its post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization is now complete, Sioux Falls, SD-based NorthWestern Corp. Wednesday reported net income from continuing operations of $9.3 million, or 26 cents/share, compared with a loss from continuing operations of $25.2 million for the same period last year.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy is touting the development of six new technologies that it says will extend the production life of 650,000 stripper wells in the United States that deliver 15% of the nation’s domestic oil and 8% of its natural gas production.

Touting the deal as a means of strengthening its finances and operating efficiencies, PNM Resources filed its plans to acquire Texas-New Mexico Power’s parent, TNP Enterprises, with state regulatory commission in New Mexico and Texas on Thursday. Rate decreases for both natural gas and electric utility customers in the merged company are proposed by PNM for next year.

Everyone from President George W. Bush on down who is touting a hydrogen-based energy future is undecided about how it will be accomplished, but natural gas is always part of the equation, and that may have to change, according to an ExxonMobil official.

State commissioners have joined the ranks of those touting the wonders of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), noting the importance of increasing natural gas supplies, passed a resolution at its summer meeting last Wednesday encouraging cooperation of state and federal agencies in the siting of LNG regasification terminals.

Sempra Energy passed a five-year milestone in its natural gas infrastructure projects in Mexico earlier this month, touting its projects as meeting all of their major shareholder and customer goals. Since 1997, the company has invested $650 million in Mexico, built a Mexican work force of 350 and connected more than 50,000 customers in three population centers in northern Mexico: Mexicali, Chihuahua and La Laguna-Durango.

Greenbrier Pipeline Co. LLC is touting itself as the first new project to use FERC’s new pre-filing process, in which project developers file a significant amount of information, including an environmental review and routing analysis, about a proposed project before the actual certificate filing makes it to FERC’s mailbox. Although Greenbrier, a mid-Atlantic project, won’t file its formal certificate application until later this year, the company has filed a significant amount of environmental information under the new pre-filing (PF) docket.

Regardless of who wins this week’s presidential election, SanDiego-based Sempra Energy advocates an expanded national energypolicy and development of sufficient pipeline upgrades to ensurethat the nation’s gas infrastructure can support all of the newnatural gas-fired electric generating plants that are underconstruction or in development throughout the nation.

BP, touting its leadership role as a responsible energy company,said last week it is completing plans to decrease its Houston areaNOx emissions through the construction of new cogenerationfacilities at its Texas City and Chocolate Bayou refining andchemical sites.