Mississippi River Transmission (MRT) and Columbia Gas SystemInc. got very high marks for being responsive to their customers,according to the results of the latest pipelinecustomer-satisfaction study released last week by Mastio & Co.

MRT of St. Louis, MO, was ranked No. 1 among the 50 interstatepipelines that were surveyed, and it also was at the top of thelist for long-haul pipelines. The latter group included 35pipelines that have at least 1,000 miles of transportation pipe andserve three or more states.

Columbia Gas System was rated the most customer responsive ofthe 12 major pipeline groups in North America, according to theMastio study. It beat out both Williams and Enron. One of itspipeline subsidiaries, Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. ofCharleston, WVA, also took the No. 1 spot in the mega-pipelinecategory. These pipelines, 18 in all, have at least 1,000 miles ofpipe and minimum deliveries of 1 billion Mcf/year.

The rankings were based on more than 1,250 interviews withindustrials, LDCs, producers, power plants and marketers. Eachrated their pipelines on 40 customer-satisfaction attributes,including quality of relationships with the pipelines,representatives who listen well, price competitiveness, responsivesales and service personnel, quality of electronic bulletin boards,plus overall preference, service and performance.

In the survey of the 50 interstates, other pipelines sharing topspots with MRT included Sabine Pipe Line, South Georgia NaturalGas, Columbia Gas Transmission and Northern Border Pipeline.Bringing up the rear were National Fuel Gas Supply, Equitrans Inc.,KN Interstate Gas Transmission (since re-named Kinder Morgan GasTransmission), Iroquois Gas Transmission System and Midwestern GasTransmission. El Paso Natural Gas, whose parent company is on itsway to becoming the biggest pipeline ever, was ranked 36.

Interstate pipelines showing “dramatic improvement” since thelast survey two years ago — with gains ranging from a couple ofpercentage points to as much as 64% — were Tennessee Gas Pipeline(ranked 23), Northern Border (5), Reliant Energy Gas Transmission(32), ANR Pipeline (28), Koch Gateway Pipeline (44), NorthernNatural Gas (20), Southern Natural Gas (16), East Tennessee NaturalGas (9), Williston Basin Pipeline (12), Wiilliams GasPipeline-Central (22), Williams Gas Pipeline-Northwest (28),Questar Pipeline (30), CNG Transmission (24) and Natural GasPipeline Co. of America (15), said Richard Mastio, president of theSt. Joseph, MO-based company.

The interstates experiencing a “significant decline,” he noted,were Algonquin Gas Transmission (ranked 40), Iroquois GasTransmission System (47), Great Lakes Gas Transmission (29),Williams Gas Pipeline-Kern River (8), Trunkline Gas Transmission(25), Williams Gas Pipeline-Texas Gas (14) and National Fuel GasSupply (50).

Among the most customer-responsive executives in the gaspipeline industry, according to Mastio, are Stephen C. Beasley,president of Tennessee Gas; Catherine G. Abbott, CEO of ColumbiaGulf Transmission; Oliver “Rick” Richard III, chairman of ColumbiaGas System Inc.; Michael McGowan, vice president of marketing forEnron Transportation and Storage; and Deborah Plattsmier of SabinePipe Line.

Susan Parker

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