NGI The Weekly Gas Market Report

A group of Wisconsin landowners is seeking to join ANR Pipeline in its fight against Wisconsin Gas and its Guardian Pipeline project.

Slightly more than one year after Midwest power prices spiked to$7,500/MWh from $25/MWh, causing suppliers to default on contracts,companies to go out of business and federal regulators to concludeit was a one-time anomaly, the power market did it again.

For those seeking to sell energy in a competitive environment,it’s a happy coincidence widespread consumer use of the Internethas come about at the same time deregulation of gas and powerunfolds. Several Internet sites have been established to simplifyshopping for consumers and reduce the cost to marketers of reachingsales prospects.

An IBM Internet outage that affected many western and Canadiancustomers last week temporarily cut off access to Altrade’selectronic gas trading system Thursday afternoon costing thecompany and its customers at least 5 Bcf/d in trading volume duringa peak bidweek trading period.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Los Angeles is reviewing itsinvestment in Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. and consideringall options, the company said. Oxy’s investment in CanadianOxy ofCalgary dates back to 1971, and Occidental currently owns 40.2million shares, or about 29%, of the company’s outstanding commonshares.

Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) pulled ahead in the crowded race to serve the expanding gas-fired power generation market in the Florida peninsula when FERC last week issued a favorable preliminary determination on the non-environmental aspects of its Phase IV mainline expansion project.

Fearing the potential side effects of waivers on the interstatemarket, FERC last week decided to give Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) onlya short-term extension of its waivers to Commission regulations topreserve the “status quo” of retail gas unbundling in Georgia whileit explores other non-waiver solutions for utilities.

While AGL Resources reported markedly improved results for itsthird fiscal quarter ended June 30, the company said returns werehurt by costs due to the rapid pace at which Atlanta Gas Lightcustomers have chosen alternate suppliers.

ScottishPower PLC and PacifiCorp announced they have brokered asettlement in principle with the staff of the Oregon Public UtilityCommission (OPUC) that essentially clears the way for the firstacquisition by a foreign company of a U.S. power utility.