Infrastructure

The proposed Access Northeast expansion by Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast pipelines is still in the prefiling stage with FERC, but groups are already weighing in on both sides of the project.

The Ohio-Louisiana Access Project of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners’ Texas Gas Transmission LLC was approved to enter full service last week as FERC allowed operations to begin at the greenfield Bosco Compressor Station in Ouachita Parish, LA.

Rosemead, CA-based Edison International (EI) CEO Ted Craver will retire Sept. 30, and the current head of its Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), Pedro Pizarro, will succeed him as CEO. EI independent director William Sullivan will become a non-executive chairman. In the interim, Pizarro will be president and a board member of EI, replacing Craver in the president’s role ahead of his retirement. A senior vice president at SCE, Kevin Payne, becomes president of the utility on Wednesday, replacing Pizarro. In addition, EI CFO Jim Scilacci will retire Sept. 30, replaced at that time as senior vice president and CFO by Maria Rigatti, the current SCE CFO. Current SCE Vice President and Treasurer William Petmecky will succeed Rigatti as the utility CFO at that time.

The first train of the Sabine Pass Liquefaction (SBL) project in Cameron Parish, LA, is being handed over to the company by contractor Bechtel, months ahead of schedule, Bechtel and SBL affiliate Cheniere Energy Partners LP said Tuesday. The “substantial completion” of Train 1 follows the sendout of numerous commissioning cargoes (see Daily GPI,May, 27;May 4). Under a sale and purchase agreement with BG Gulf Coast LNG LLC, the date of first commercial delivery for Train 1 is expected to occur in November 2016, upon which the agreement’s 20-year term commences. Under the agreement BG has certain rights to early cargoes produced from Train 1. “Now that Train 1 has achieved substantial completion, financial results from its LNG sales going forward will be reflected in the statement of operations,” Cheniere said.

Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) Dakota Access Pipeline LLC unit has kept passage over federal lands to a minimum for its four-state, 1,172-mile project to ship Bakken crude oil to markets along the East and Gulf coasts, the ETP executive in charge of building the $3.8 billion line said Tuesday in a presentation at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, ND.

Train 2 of the Gladstone LNG project on Curtis Island in Australia has begun producing liquefied natural gas (LNG), contractor Bechtel said Wednesday. Meanwhile, work at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass Terminal in Louisiana is advancing. And a widened Panama Canal is expected to see transit of larger vessels beginning next month.

Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) Thursday said it is pursuing a counterclaim in a lawsuit filed by The Williams Companies Inc. for the right to terminate the companies’ merger agreement. A trial is scheduled for June 20 (see Daily GPI,May 25). ETE said Williams has breached the merger agreement by, among other things, refusing to cooperate with ETE in the financing of the deal and suing Kelcy Warren, the chairman of ETE’s general partner, personally in Dallas County, TX, in violation of a mandatory forum selection provision in the merger agreement. ETE is seeking a declaratory judgment that Williams breached the merger agreement, including by its board of directors modifying or qualifying its approval and recommendation of the merger. ETE also seeks a judgment that entitles it to immediately terminate the merger agreement. “In the event ETE is entitled to and does terminate the merger agreement due to a modification or qualification of the Williams board of directors’ recommendation of the merger, Williams would owe ETE a termination fee of $1.48 billion,” ETE said.

A Louisville, KY-based developer is one step closer to moving forward with plans to build the state’s second natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) power plant after a municipally owned electric and water utility last week agreed to explore power purchase agreements (PPA) with the facility.

Tulsa-based independent WPX Energy Inc. has eliminated natural gas transportation obligations that had supported its former Piceance Basin operations in an agreement with Citadel NGPE LLC.