NGI The Weekly Gas Market Report

Despite the nine natural gas suppliers who bellied up to PacificGas & Electric’s bar last week after the federal emergencyorder expired, the utility still faces “the possibility of a severegas supply crisis.”

While public attention centers on the Arctic, a dramaticdemonstration is under way of the ability of Canada’s near north todeliver new natural gas supplies on a large scale.

The folks over at CMS Energy, Reliant Energy and Williams EnergyTrading apparently are the best around at smiling and saying “thankyou.” They came out on top of a new customer satisfaction rankingby Mastio & Co. that evaluates the largest gas marketingcompanies based on the results of 1,200 interviews with industrialcompanies, LDCs, power producers and other marketers.

With prices still at record highs by Canadian standards,interest is heating up among producers in accelerating natural gasdevelopment in the East Coast offshore, including remote prospectson the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

At a time when online energy exchanges are beginning to consolidate their portals, EMK3 has announced that it has launched the world’s first online energy exchange that offers domestic buyers and sellers of oil and natural gas the ability to electronically purchase and sell production at the very beginning of the supply chain: the wellhead.

Texas regulators, legislators, industry and consumers will sharea forum in March to voice concerns about the state’s high naturalgas prices and the coming advent of deregulation. The conference,tentatively set for the end of March in Austin, won unanimoussupport from the Texas Railroad Commission — but one commissionersuggested “less talk, more action” to resolve issues as quickly aspossible.

In the nothing-is-really-settled department, the State ofCalifornia was preparing to intervene today in a federal districtcourt in Los Angeles that has been asked to raise utility rates tocover the unpaid costs of wholesale power.

In the fourth time in as many months, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) filed two similar complaints with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) against Summit Natural Gas and The Energy Cooperative — which includes Cinergy Resources and Licking Rural Electrification — alleging violations of Ohio’s much maligned natural gas choice program, as well as Ohio law.

Speaking prior to the launch of numerous state legislative proposals last week designed to solve California’s power crisis, FERC Chairman Curt Hebert expressed disappointment with the speed and direction the state has taken so far in attempting to manage its predicament.