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A new Canadian subarctic exploration campaign is developing — closer to market than the contested Mackenzie Gas Project — after a group led by Husky Energy Inc. chalked up its second drilling success in the central Northwest Territories.

According to a Lehman Brothers analysis, gas demand hit a 10-year low in 2003 primarily because of the impact of high gas prices on price sensitive end users, such as chemical production companies.

According to a Lehman Brothers analysis, gas demand hit a 10-year low in 2003 primarily because of the impact of high gas prices on price sensitive end users, such as chemical production companies.

For utilities and end-users still shell-shocked from the sky-high spikes of Monday and Tuesday, it may have seemed like re-entering a nightmare they thought they had already awakened from. Dollar-plus price gains — often plus much more than a dollar — were back in vogue Friday, as traders shrugged off the normal demand slump that accompanies a weekend and focused instead on a screen advance of more than 60 cents and prospects that this week largely will repeat the cold-weather pattern of the previous one.

For the winter billing period of November through April, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday its 3.8 million residential customers will receive baseline volume increases of 5% to 26% for the lowest natural gas rates that it charges.

There is no evidence that Nicor Inc. affiliate Nicor Gas committed criminal fraud in carrying out its performance-based rate (PBR) program for Illinois gas customers, but the local distribution company (LDC) did overcharge its customers by an estimated $15 million over the past couple of years, according to the results of an independent report commissioned by a special committee that was named by the company’s board of directors.

There is no evidence that Nicor Inc. affiliate Nicor Gas engaged in criminal fraud in carrying out its performance-based rate (PBR) program for Illinois gas customers, but the local distribution company (LDC) did overcharge its customers by an estimated $15 million over the past couple of years, according to the results of an independent report commissioned by a special committee that was named by the company’s board of directors.

Major energy providers and users alike last week attacked FERC staff’s efforts to establish a new pricing formula that would lower the purchase costs power generators could legitimately claim for natural gas used to produce electricity during the California energy crisis nearly two years ago — a move that, if successful, would raise the level of potential refunds owed by generators to state energy consumers. They urged the Commission to jettison staff’s proposed pricing alternative, arguing staff fell far short of proving that the conventional method used for computing generators’ gas costs — published price indices — had been successfully manipulated to the point where gas prices were inflated.

A newly formed alliance composed of California air quality, transportation and energy officials and private sector representatives released a list of specific goals last week for the deployment of more natural gas powered vehicles (NGVs) across the state.