Articles filed under Infrastructure

PG&E Corp. CEO Anthony Earley in a Wall Street interview Wednesday held out the possibility of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the company's giant San Francisco-based combination utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), if a proposed $2.25 billion penalty by state regulatory safety staff is upheld by the five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

UGI Corp.'s Pennsylvania-based natural gas utility has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle allegations that it failed to adequately maintain and repair a 50-year-old high-pressure gas main in Wilkes Barre.

The number seven is a symbol of fortune and intelligence in China and that luck is being pressed by the Asian-owned seventh proposal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to the Orient from the Pacific Coast of British Columbia (BC).

While still awaiting a U.S. State Department green light on another U.S.-Mexico gas pipeline border crossing, Sierrita Lateral (see Daily GPI, Aug. 13),Kinder Morgan's El Paso Natural Gas unit has moved ahead with the start of operations at its Norte Crossing facilities near El Paso, TX (see Daily GPI, June 18). Up to 366 MMcf/d can now flow to a new delivery interconnection with the Tarahumara Pipeline at the U.S.-Mexico border beneath the Rio Grande River. Ultimate end-users include five new gas-fired power plants scheduled to be developed during the next 15 years by Mexico's state-owned Comision Federal de Electricidad. The Norte II power plant was slated to start up earlier this month, drawing its fuel from the Norte Crossing tie-in. MGI Supply Ltd., a firm shipper on El Paso's system, has a new agreement for capacity at the proposed Norte Crossing facility, allowing MGI to export gas from the United States to Mexico to serve the Norte II CFE power plant.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued air permits to Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. (CPChem) LP, moving plans for a 3.3 billion pounds/year ethane cracker and two new polyethylene facilities on Texas' Gulf Coast one step closer to reality, the company said.

Units of Kinder Morgan's El Paso Pipeline Partners LP business said that during recent open seasons, plenty of customers stepped up for incremental long-term transportation capacity from the Marcellus Shale region to serve markets in Georgia, South Carolina and northern Florida.

The elephant named Marcellus that has been sitting on Northeast-Henry Hub basis isn't about to move along, and what used to be a premium market will see trades discounted to the U.S. gas benchmark for a while, analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note Tuesday.

In a notice published in the Federal Register Wednesday, the Transportation Department's Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced its final authorization of the decommissioning of the Gulf Gateway Energy Bridge Deepwater Port, the first deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility of its kind in the world. The Excelerate Energy LP facility is being retired just eight years after it went into service in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.(Pioneer) and Pioneer Southwest Energy Partners LP (Pioneer Southwest) have struck an agreement for their previously announced merger under which Pioneer Southwest would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer operating company Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc. (see Shale Daily, May 13). The transaction is intended to consolidate the West Texas Midland Basin activities of the two companies and facilitate Pioneer's plans to fully and optimally develop the area utilizing horizontal drilling. The combination is expected to provide organizational, operational and administrative efficiencies, Pioneer said. Pioneer Southwest's public unitholders are to receive 0.2325 of a share of common stock of Pioneer per Pioneer Southwest common unit surrendered, plus a whole share of Pioneer common stock in lieu of any fractional share of Pioneer common stock otherwise issuable in the merger. The transaction is expected to result in 3.95 million additional shares of common stock being issued by Pioneer.

NGI Daily Price Index reported last week that Potomac ElectricPower Co. hoped to sell nearly all of its power generationfacilities --- with an estimated capacity of at about 6,055 MW ---for an "upside price" of about $3 million. Pepco later correctedthe figure to $3 billion. Pepco further said it hoped to narrow thefield of serious bidders to between six and a dozen by March.