Natural Gas Wyoming

Benham's Restaurant was almost empty because the lunch hour had passed. Earl Benham, sitting in his cramped little office, was talking about the good times. There were days during the oil boom when people would wait two hours to get a table. Wallets were pumped up. Money flowed as fast as a Wyoming river in springtime. Benham kept hiring more people to work in the restaurant.

Benham's Restaurant was almost empty because the lunch hour had passed. Earl Benham, sitting in his cramped little office, was talking about the good times. There were days during the oil boom when people would wait two hours to get a table. Wallets were pumped up. Money flowed as fast as a Wyoming river in springtime. Benham kept hiring more people to work in the restaurant.

Talks aimed at bringing clean-burning natural gas to Los Angeles from Wyoming collapsed Wednesday, leaving the city's Department of Water and Power facing what it called "a real crisis" in its ability to meet new air-quality goals. A letter of intent providing for exclusive gas-supply negotiations between the department and Kern River Gas Transmission Co. expired without an agreement after about seven months of talks, said DWP general manager Norman E. Nichols.

Why is Mike Sullivan, the governor of Wyoming, so worried about California's smog? Doesn't he have his own problems back home? Indeed he does, notably a weak economy. One way to fix that is to help clean up California's air--by shipping Wyoming natural gas out here to burn in place of dirtier oil.

California would save nearly $21 billion in energy costs over the next 45 years by tapping into the natural gas reserves of Alberta, Canada, and Wyoming, the California Energy Commission said Monday. In a report that becomes part of a hot debate over California's long-term natural gas supplies, the commission endorsed the construction of pipelines to bring gas from both regions and lessen California's dependence on the natural gas fields of the southwestern United States.

Talks aimed at bringing clean-burning natural gas to Los Angeles from Wyoming collapsed Wednesday, leaving the city's Department of Water and Power facing what it called "a real crisis" in its ability to meet new air-quality goals. A letter of intent providing for exclusive gas-supply negotiations between the department and Kern River Gas Transmission Co. expired without an agreement after about seven months of talks, said DWP general manager Norman E. Nichols.

The race to build a natural gas pipeline to California heated up Friday when Southern California Gas Co. announced an agreement to buy gas from the Altamont pipeline project, which would bring gas from Canada to Wyoming. At the same time, the Kern River Gas Transmission Co., which is proposing its own pipeline from Wyoming to California, said it had agreed to transport Altamont's gas on the final leg of its journey south.

The first in a series of hotly disputed natural-gas pipelines to California won federal approval Wednesday, touching off a scramble to line up enough customers to justify building the $665-million project. A 1,000-mile line that oil and gas giant Coastal Corp. proposes to build from Wyoming to the oil fields near Bakersfield was granted a permit by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Coastal said.

The race to build a natural gas pipeline to California heated up Friday when Southern California Gas Co. announced an agreement to buy gas from the Altamont pipeline project, which would bring gas from Canada to Wyoming. At the same time, the Kern River Gas Transmission Co., which is proposing its own pipeline from Wyoming to California, said it had agreed to transport Altamont's gas on the final leg of its journey south.

Why is Mike Sullivan, the governor of Wyoming, so worried about California's smog? Doesn't he have his own problems back home? Indeed he does, notably a weak economy. One way to fix that is to help clean up California's air--by shipping Wyoming natural gas out here to burn in place of dirtier oil.

California would save nearly $21 billion in energy costs over the next 45 years by tapping into the natural gas reserves of Alberta, Canada, and Wyoming, the California Energy Commission said Monday. In a report that becomes part of a hot debate over California's long-term natural gas supplies, the commission endorsed the construction of pipelines to bring gas from both regions and lessen California's dependence on the natural gas fields of the southwestern United States.

The first in a series of hotly disputed natural-gas pipelines to California won federal approval Wednesday, touching off a scramble to line up enough customers to justify building the $665-million project. A 1,000-mile line that oil and gas giant Coastal Corp. proposes to build from Wyoming to the oil fields near Bakersfield was granted a permit by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Coastal said.

Tenneco Mulls Sale of Pipeline: The Houston company's Tenneco Gas unit said it is considering selling its 50% stake in the Kern River Pipeline. Tenneco and Williams Cos., a natural gas and petroleum products company based in Tulsa, Okla., are equal partners in the 904-mile pipeline that carries natural gas from Wyoming to Bakersfield. Williams has 30 days to make a buyout offer to its partner, according to a Tenneco Gas spokesman.

Coastal Corp. has scrapped plans for a $600-million pipeline that would have carried natural gas from Wyoming to oil producers and utilities in Southern California. Coastal Chairman Oscar Wyatt Jr. said at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Vienna on Tuesday that the WyCal project was abandoned because of fears of an economic slowdown and tough competition from a nearly identical pipeline proposed by a subsidiary of Tenneco Inc.