City officials in Hutchinson, KS continue their investigationafter a suspected leaking natural gas storage cavern caused twoexplosions in mid-January, leveling businesses and killing one manand injuring his wife.
NGI The Weekly Gas Market Report
Articles from NGI The Weekly Gas Market Report
Petal Goes Back to Original Expansion Proposal
Petal Gas Storage L.L.C. ate a little crow at FERC last week. Itconceded that its original proposal for expanding thedeliverability capacity serving its storage facilities was a betterplan after all.
DEFS Opens OK Pipeline, Consolidates Processing
Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) began service on its newlyconstructed 12-inch, 42-mile natural gas pipeline, which travelsfrom the company’s Carney processing facility to its Kingfisherplant near Cashion, OK. The company said the line is capable ofmoving 60 MMcf/d.
Edison Favors Monitoring Agencies for Power, Gas in CA
The near-bankrupt Southern California Edison last week calledfor the formation of an independent agency or agencies that wouldmonitor and punish market-power abusers in the state’s bulk powerand natural markets.
Bill to Set Regional Price Caps Introduced
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation on CapitolHill last week that would give the Department of Energy (DOE) theauthority to overstep FERC by setting an interim regional price capor cost-based rates on wholesale power transactions in 11 westernstates.
Senate Panel to Vote on Interior Nominee This Week
Referring to herself as both a “conservationist and aconservative,” Interior Secretary nominee Gale Norton walked atightrope last week in an effort to persuade her Senate Republicanand Democratic inquisitors that, despite the heated controversysurrounding her nomination, she is the best choice for the job.
Duke Doubles 4Q Profits, Southern Also Up
Power generators Duke Energy Corp. and Southern Co., which bothprovide electricity to some markets in California, reported highfourth quarter profits and continued growth through the year lastweek. And, despite concern that the generators won’t be paid forenergy they supplied to nearly bankrupt California utilities, bothsaid they would pursue payments from their customers if they haveto.
Florida: Focus of Another Bush Battle?
Florida may be at the center of another controversy between the two Bush brothers, but this time it won’t involve a recount, but rather states’ rights versus federal authority – federal authority that through the Clinton administration had favored and supported states’ rights to ban offshore drilling. This time, the brothers could be on opposite sides.
Blackouts Prompt Action; CA Finds $400 Million to Buy Power
In what has to be a wilder ride than anything available atDisneyland’s soon-to-open new “California Experience,” theelectricity high jinx caromed all over the nation’s most populousstate last week. It included: rolling blackouts through northernCalifornia; enactment of crisis legislation, the most immediate ofwhich provides $400 million to the state water resources agency soit can buy bulk power for California; a last minute temporaryrestraining order by the California Public Utilities Commissionrequiring Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edisonto continue supplying power to all their customers; variousfinancial downgradings and defaults; and suggestions for compromiseactions by outgoing FERC Chairman James Hoecker.
Bossier Play Boss for Anadarko
Building on the success it has enjoyed so far in its Bossiernatural gas play in East Texas, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. plans tospend nearly a third more in the region this year, almost $535million total, to expand its development program and increase itsexploration prospects.