Usual

Spring will be warmer than usual in most of the eastern and central United States this year, but colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate further west, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Spring will be warmer than usual in most of the eastern and central United States this year, but colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate further west, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Cash markets overall swan-dived an average 17 cents Friday as the usual suspects of an uninspired corps of weekend buyers joined forces with a mild weather outlook and a weak screen to send weekend and Monday gas sharply lower.

California’s five-member state regulatory commission is showing some cracks in its usual solid consensus after 10 years of being headed by a former utility senior executive. This became apparent Thursday when a proposal by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) to invest utility ratepayer funds in a solar demonstration facility was rejected on a 3-2 vote.

It’s all about not standing in the way of cheap energy, economic growth, jobs and energy security, according to more than 100 groups representing U.S. industry, from North Dakota grain growers to Dow Chemical to the Ohio Bowling Association, that petitioned Tuesday to keep the federal government from erecting barriers to hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) San Bruno pipeline rupture last year was caused by none of the usual suspects when it comes to high-pressure natural gas transmission pipeline failures, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made clear in its final report adopted by the five-member panel in Washington, DC, Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 31).

Prices fell across the board Friday as the continuing dearth of either heating or cooling load, the previous day’s 9-cent futures drop and the usual weekend dip of industrial demand combined to soften the cash market. The lack of any credible tropical storm threat to offshore production was another bearish factor.

Chiefly reflecting the previous Friday’s 11.5-cent rebound by October futures and the return of industrial load from its usual weekend hiatus, prices rose at a large majority of points Monday.

Although it was still operating as usual on Friday, Sempra Energy’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along the Pacific Coast of North Baja California in Mexico was facing a clouded future after a Mexican federal court issued apparent support for a long-standing lawsuit by a former landowner.