Pipeline-on-pipeline competition in the Colorado and Wyomingregion will have to wait at least another year, says KN WattenbergTransmission LLC. It has asked FERC for a one-year extension tobuild and put into operation its proposed 109-mile Front RunnerPipeline, which was supposed to begin service this month.

KN Wattenberg said it is seeking the “additional time” toconduct “further market analysis” of its project in the wake of thecompletion of the competing 53-mile, 269 MDth/d Front Rangepipeline, which went into operation last November [CP98-49]. Thesponsors of Front Runner and Front Range have been in a fierce raceto serve the growing Denver, CO, market. Although Front Range issurely the hands-down winner, KN Wattenberg insists – at least fornow – there’s still a need for its proposed Front Runnerfacilities.

“KN believes that customers want increased competition inColorado’s Front Range [region]. The new [Front Range] pipelinerecently added new capacity for the area. However, the lack ofcompetition did not change. We need to further examine to whatdegree the marketplace supports another pipeline at this time…,”said a spokeswoman for KN Energy, parent of KN Wattenberg. The factthat KN Wattenberg has filed for an extension suggests that “ourplan right now is to move forward” on Front Runner, she noted.

KN Wattenberg further believes an extension is “prudent” whilethe case is under appeal at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, saidRichard Kaup, KN’s director of certificates. The sponsors of FrontRange, Public Service Company of Colorado and Colorado InterstateGas (CIG), have petitioned the court to overturn FERC’s ordersapproving the KN Front Runner project.

The Commission granted KN Wattenberg an optional certificatelast July to build the Front Runner facilities, which were to carrygas from near Rockport, CO, south into the Denver market. Thecertificate required the proposed pipeline to be completed andin-service by July 10th of this year. But KN Wattenberg hasn’t evenbegun construction on the project.

At the time of the FERC order, the competing Front Range projectalready had been approved by the Colorado Public UtilitiesCommission (PUC) and was under construction. The $25 millionproject was a joint effort of the Public Service Company ofColorado, an LDC, and Colorado Interstate, which oversawconstruction of the line. The two companies are involved in analliance to develop pipeline projects in Colorado.

KN Wattenberg insisted the Front Range project was able to”leapfrog” its Front Runner facilities because Colorado Interstateand affiliate, Wyoming Interstate Co. (WIC), had intentionallybifurcated Front Range into non-jurisdictional and jurisdictionalsections. This paved the way for quick approval from the ColoradoPUC for the majority of the Front Range project, KN Wattenbergcharged, and further cemented CIG’s dominance in the Colorado gasmarket. It lodged a complaint with FERC, which was subsequentlyrejected.

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