Customer satisfaction with gas pipeline transportation in NorthAmerica has shown a marginal 2% improvement over the past twoyears, with 30 pipelines achieving a higher ranking while almost anequal amount of pipelines (27) experienced a decline, according toa bi-annual survey released by Mastio &amp Co. last week.

Pipeline customers ranked Mississippi River Transmission (MRT)of St. Louis, MO, the top interstate pipeline, Houston-based TejasEnergy LLC as the leading intrastate pipeline, and Union Gas Ltd.of Ontario at the head of the field of Canadian pipelines. KernRiver Gas Transmission, which scored behind MRT, was the mostimproved pipeline in terms of customer satisfaction since 1996,according to survey results.

“It’s good that there’s an improvement, although 2% is not alot. It tells us with every passing day more pipelines are focusingon customer satisfaction or otherwise there wouldn’t have been anyimprovement,” said Richard C. Mastio, president of the St. Joseph,MO, company. He pointed out that the latest results were muchbetter than those of 1996, when only seven pipelines showedimprovement in customer satisfaction and 32 had declining scores.

For the first time ever, the Mastio survey also ranked LDCs andgatherers, with Arkla Energy Resources faring as the mostcustomer-oriented distributor and Williams Field Services as theleading gas gatherer.

Interestingly, it turned the tables on FERC and the Gas IndustryStandards Board (GISB) and rated them according to customersatisfaction. Both the Commission and GISB scored in the low 50sout of a possible index score of 100 – about equal to what theInternal Revenue Service received, the Mastio survey said.Ironically, FERC got lower ratings from pipeline customers -producers and LDCs – than it did from the pipelines it regulates.

“Quite frankly, I expected FERC to do better in the eyes of thecustomers. Well that didn’t happen…they have a pretty lousyscore,” Mastio told NGI. In fact, the Commission, which had anaverage index score of 50.3, was ranked lower than every interstateexcept three, “which would tell me that FERC needs to focus onimprovement too,” he added. “In all probability, [it’s] more asource of the problem…and not the interstate pipelines.”Likewise, GISB’s score of 55.8 was below those of 40 interstatepipelines.

The results of the survey, titled the “1998 Natural Gas PipelineTransportation Customer Satisfaction, Marketing Effectiveness,Benchmarking and Image Report,” were gleaned from in-depthinterviews with 1,110 pipeline transportation customers in NorthAmerica. Results were collected for 46 interstate, 13 intrastateand seven Canadian pipelines.

Customers ranked pipelines, as well as LDCs and gatherers, on 41different customer satisfaction attributes, including thecompetitiveness of transportation pricing, dependability ofagreements and commitments, quality of relationships, availabilityof capacity and storage service, overall service and performance.

MRT, which is owned by NorAm Energy, “had to obviously do wellon almost everything to make the top of the list” of 46 interstatepipelines, Mastio said. The other top interstates in order ofranking were Kern River, Sabine Pipe Line, Columbia GulfTransmission and Columbia Gas Transmission. The five worstcustomer-satisfaction performers from the bottom up were MidwesternGas Transmission, Stingray Pipeline, Koch Gateway Pipeline, KNInterstate Gas Transmission and Williston Basin InterstatePipeline.

In a ranking of 36 long-haul pipelines – systems with at least1,000 miles of pipe serving three or more states – most of the samepipelines were the top performers. Great Lakes Gas Transmissioncame in at No. 5, as Sabine dropped from the list.

In the ranking of 11 major pipeline organizational groups, theColumbia Group fared best and was followed by the Williams Group,Duke Energy and Enron. At the bottom of the heap were KN Group,Southern Group and Houston Industries.

Columbia Gas Transmission also captured top billing in Mastio’sranking of 18 mega pipelines, which are systems that have at least1,000 miles of pipeline and annual deliveries of at least 1 Bcf.Great Lakes and William Gas Pipeline-Texas Gas took the No. 2 andNo. 3 spots, respectively. The worst performers in this categorywere Koch Gateway, NorAm Gas Transmission, an affiliate oftop-ranked MRT, and ANR Pipeline.

Channel Industries Gas and PG&ampE Gas Transmission-Teco Inc.immediately followed Tejas Energy as the top ranked intrastates,while Westar Transmission, Delhi Gas Pipeline and Houston Pipelinewere at the bottom. In Mastio’s listing of seven Canadianpipelines, Nova Gas Transmission and Foothills Pipeline Ltd.captured high marks behind Union Gas, with Westar Transmissionscoring the lowest.

In the LDC category, Bridgeline Gas Distribution and MichiganConsolidated Gas held the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively,behind Arkla Energy. Two California LDCs – which happen to be amongthe largest in the nation – were ranked lowest, with Pacific Gas&amp Electric at No. 7 and Southern California Gas at No. 8.

As for gatherers, GPM Gas Corp. and El Paso Field Services wererated highest in customer satisfaction behind Williams FieldServices, while NorAm Field Services was relegated to the cellar -the No. 6 spot.

For further information about the survey, contact Mastio &ampCo. at (816) 364-6200, or log on to the company’s web site athttps://www.mastio.com.

Susan Parker

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