Daily GPI

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a final rule that adopts new consensus business standards for interstate natural gas pipelines in a number of areas — capacity-release bidding and scheduling, title transfer tracking at pooling points, imbalance netting and trading, and electronic transactions over the Internet.

A settlement approved in a 2-1 vote by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) to end a year-long rate case with Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. (ONG), was in doubt Friday after questions arose about deletions to the agreement by the commissioners that would have shielded from investigation other questionable ONG natural gas contracts. The settlement scheduled for final order, resolves claims about two ONG cases, but there may be more, OCC said.

Major gas producers have called on FERC to reject Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s application to spin off its South Texas pipeline facilities to an unaffiliated Texas intrastate pipeline, a move that critics argue would bifurcate Transco’s system into jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional segments and force shippers to deal with a patchwork of rates, schedules and nomination procedures.

The first steps have been taken toward ending a 30-year-old ban against drilling offshore of Canada’s west coast, a region projected to harbor 42 Tcf of natural gas. A technical review panel of three blue-chip experts, following months of consultations with specialists, declared there is no scientific basis for continuing the moratorium.

Anadarko Petroleum expects to beat current Wall Street estimates for the second quarter and the year with about 80 cents per share of earnings in the quarter and about $3.20 per share (diluted) for all of 2002. Wall Street estimates currently average 71 cents/share for the quarter and $2.60 for the year. However the company expects its domestic natural gas production to be down 11% this year to 509 Bcf unless company officials decide to expand Anadarko’s capital expenditure (capex) program.

Two medium-size natural gas companies in the Southwest drew negative attention from the rating agencies earlier this week, with Moody’s Investor Services reviewing Salt Lake City-based Questar Corp. for a possible downgrade and Standard & Poor’s assigning a negative outlook to Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp., noting its “strong, diverse and growing gas market” is offset by what S&P’s called “a highly political regulatory environment.”

Florida Gas Transmission reported Friday morning that it had completed repairs of a leak in its 36-inch mainline south of Tallahassee, FL (see Daily GPI, May 3). It was scheduling up to full capacity (about 1,950,000 MMBtu/d) in the market area for Friday’s gas day. “Total linepack is currently at a satisfactory level,” FGT said. However, it kept in place through at least Friday an Overage Alert Day notice for the market area with 10% tolerance for negative imbalances.

A year past the initial stigma of its utility affiliate’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, PG&E National Energy Group (NEG) is focused on streamlining its portfolio of new energy projects and hanging on to its investment-grade credit ratings, according to its senior PG&E executive who spoke Thursday in a conference call with the financial community. On an operating basis both the NEG nonutility businesses and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility showed lower earnings than the same period in 2001.

Marking its exit from natural gas, Sunoco Inc. has completed the sale of its natural gas sales and marketing business to Ontario Energy Savings Corp. (OESC) for C$66 million. First reported in early April, the sale is part of the company’s plan to return to its core businesses (see Daily GPI, April 8).