The National Energy Board said it will hold a public hearing on an application from Westcoast Energy Inc., carrying on business as Duke Energy Gas Transmission, for approval of final tolls for mainline transmission service in Zones 3 and 4 for the period spanning from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.

Westcoast estimates the cost of service for 2004 to be C$264.8 million, compared to the forecast of the 2003 cost of service of C$245.7 million, reflecting an increase of C$19.1 million. The increases in the typical tolls for each of Zones 3 and 4 would be 1.6% and 11.4%, respectively.

The public hearing will be held on May 17. Written interventions must be filed with the board by Feb. 2.

The board said that as part of its consideration of the application, it will hold a pre-hearing conference led by board staff in Vancouver, BC, on Jan. 29, 2004 to discuss which issues need to be addressed to dispose of the application and why, and the appropriate process and timing to deal with these issues.

At the pre-hearing, the board is interested in determining whether parties believe that all the issues are best addressed through a public hearing, or whether some issues may be addressed through an alternative process with the involvement of the board staff.

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