Subject: trip report
summary of coga conference follows . fyi - at the time of the conference , the
conference organizers indicated that all speakers presentations would be made
available at the coga . org websit after the conference . however , coga is
currently experiencing difficulties in actually getting each speaker to
provide this information . i have requested a copy of the interstate pipeline
( cig / questar / el paso / transcolorado / western / nwpl ) presentations to be mailed
to me and will circulate them when i receive them . they provide interesting
summaries of pipeline expansion programs .
main conference themes which seem to be repeated among various speackers
include the following points :
- annual u . s . domestic requirements are headed towards the 30 tcf point
sooner than expected . one attributable reason for the higher than expected
growth rate was the impact of growing internet & cellular activity of the
nation . it was estimated that these combined markets have grown from
representing 2 % of total electrical requirements of the nation to
approximately an 8 - 10 % range which will be sustainable from this point
forward . in addition , overall healthy economic growth of the nation also
contributes to the increase in domestic gas demand .
- power river basin coalbed methane production has the highest potential
growth opportunity for rocky production .
- currently the companies most active in rocky mountain exploration &
production are experiencing a shortage of geologists , engineers , and field
personnel which they fear may impact the desired rate of field developement
- rig counts in the rockies are on the rise , but additional rig availability
is also an issue which may impact rate of production .
- the only pipelines which actively promoted access to waha markets for rocky
production were el paso and transcolorado .
- el paso was already encouraging interest in the 1 . 2 bcf of capacity which
el paso merchant services currently has on their system which will expire
october 01 .
- general conference discussion opinion is that the alliance in - service
impact will be fairly neutral to market demand and gas prices for rocky
production . they continue to be optimistic with their growth opportunities
and price expectations .
customer meetings :
western gas resources - met with bill koch ( project developer ) , chris o ' dell
( texas gas marketer ) , andrew carter and andrew richmond ( western region gas
marketers ) . western is in the process of purchasing some nng lines which are
in close proximity to the most southern part of transwestern ' s west texas
lateral . western would eventually like to deliver treated gas into this
line , once traswestern cleans the line and finalizes the gomez to puckett
tie - over , in order to access our waha markets . upside potential exists to
eventually have access to two western plants totaling approximately 150
mmcf / d of supplies through this arrangement . tw would most likely have to
enter into some form of transportation agreement with western in order to
justify the $ 2 mm price tag for the gomez to puckett tie - over .
aquila - met with tori campbell , goerge nunnemaker , mark magliery and nick
thomas to discuss general tw issues .