Ending concerns that related pipelines might not start serviceon the same day, both the Alliance and Vector pipelines opened forbusiness on Friday.

The 285-mile 42-inch Vector project connects to 59 miles ofexisting 36-inch pipe leased line in Michigan, and crosses 1,900tracts of land in the United States and Canada. The 700 MMCf/dproject is one major new downstream outlet for the 1.325 BcfAlliance project (see related story this issue).

Vector had construction problems because of wet weather and alsowas forced to delay its start-up from Nov. 1, while Alliance hadcontinually pushed back its expected date of Oct. 1 because ofcommissioning problems.

Vector’s pipeline basically will connect the Chicago and Dawn,ON, hubs. It will be expanded next year to 1 Bcf/d when theHighland compressor station in Michigan is completed. Also, 200MMcf/d of short-haul service into Indiana will be initiated inMarch 2001, following completion of interconnecting facilities.Officials say that the system may be cost-effectively expanded to1.5 Bcf/d eventually.

Current partners in the Vector project are Calgary-basedEnbridge Inc., holding a 45% interest; Vancouver-based WestcoastEnergy Inc., which holds 30% interest; and Detroit-based MCN EnergyGroup Inc., holding 25%. Since it was proposed in June 1997,representatives have worked with nearly 70 local, state, federaland provincial agencies to obtain the required permits.

Lead operators for Vector will be Enbridge Inc.-U.S. andEnbridge Pipelines Inc., subsidiaries of Calgary-based Enbridge.They will provide all field services in the United States exceptfor the 59 miles of leased facilities in Michigan and except forgas control, nominations and administrative services. MichCon willprovide the field services for the leased line in Michigan; UnionGas will do the same for the Canadian segment.

Carolyn Davis, Houston

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