Ultimately

The president of ExxonMobil Corp. said Canada’s C$7 billion ($5.9 billion) Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline will “ultimately get across the finish line,” likely before the rival gas line in Alaska. The gas line, as proposed, would carry about 1.9 Bcf/d of gas to Alberta pipelines, which then would be routed to Canadian and U.S. markets.

Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski met with the premiers of three Canadian provinces Monday to discuss the Alaska gas pipeline project, which ultimately will have to run through the Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta. Murkowski said all three premiers “committed to support good faith negotiations between their governments, North Slope oil producers and Canadian pipeline companies to ensure the most expeditious development of the project.”

With the caveat that city council approval ultimately is needed, the oversight board for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Monday okayed the framework for the nation’s largest municipal utility to acquire its own natural gas reserves as part of a consortium of public power utilities, and adopted a formal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) calling for 20% green power sources by 2017.

With the caveat that city council approval ultimately is needed, the oversight board for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Monday okayed the framework for the nation’s largest municipal utility to acquire its own natural gas reserves as part of a consortium of public power utilities, and adopted a formal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) calling for 20% green power sources by 2017.

After bumping their head on the $7.34 level twice during the session, April natural gas futures on Tuesday ultimately appeared to be intimidated by the significant weakness displayed by big brother crude.

Even with continued public scrutiny and competition from other projects, the 700 MMcf/d Long Beach LNG receiving terminal, proposed by Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary Sound Energy Solutions (SES) and ConocoPhillips, is still on track for a joint federal-state draft environmental assessment by spring and a final assessment in September, SES’s COO Tom Giles told NGI late Tuesday.

The door is open to future equity partners, a possible transportation role and ultimately a slight delay in the start-up of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s aggressive plans for siting two liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals in the West and Gulf coasts by 2007, according to Sempra’s CEO Stephen Baum, responding to questions from financial analysts in a earnings conference call Thursday.

EnCana expects to ultimately recover more than 4 Tcf from Cutbank Ridge, a newly acquired gas play that straddles the British Columbia and Alberta border. The Calgary-based independent, which already has a stronghold in the Canadian and U.S. Rocky Mountains, said Monday it has invested about C$500 million in exploration drilling and land sales in Cutbank Ridge, which covers nearly half a million acres.

If FERC ultimately finds in favor of various power suppliers in a dispute over whether refunds should be ordered as a result of dysfunctional power prices in the Pacific Northwest in 2000-2001, such a decision would have a “devastating impact” on the credibility of both the federal agency and its staff, an attorney representing the City of Seattle said last Monday.