Washington Gas Light Co. has asked FERC to schedule a formalhearing to assure it and other potential distribution customersthat the liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be imported by Williams’Cove Point LNG facility in Lusby, MD, will be pipeline-quality gas.

In a protest filed Monday, the Washington, DC-based distributorsaid a hearing was needed to satisfy future customers that the typeand character of the LNG to be imported at Cove Point, ifre-opened, will fall within the standard parameters of traditionaltransmission quality gas.

Williams last month asked the Commission for the go-ahead toreactivate the mothballed Cove Point LNG terminal and import servicesby April 1, 2002, and expand its LNG storage capacity to 7.8 Bcf (seeDaily GPI, Jan. 31).

A review by FERC of the Cove Point LNG plant should address boththe financial and operational aspects associated with theintroduction of a non-traditional fuel source into the interstatepipeline system, Washington Gas said.

The distributor noted it had no suspicions that the LNG at CovePoint would be anything other than pipeline-quality gas. “We justbasically want to be assured that the natural gas that isactivated.meets our standards,” said spokeswoman Joan M. Hairston.

Similar fears were raised in the mid to late 1970s, when theCove Point facilities were built, she said. At the time, the energyindustry had two years to address the issues, Hairston recalled,but it has a much shorter timeframe (six months) to deal with themnow. A key concern is that Washington Gas may have to modify itsdistribution equipment to accommodate a different pressure level inCove Point’s LNG pipeline, Hairston told NGI.

“We believe that further study of the potential implications isnecessary before Cove Point receives a certificate authorizing itto proceed” with reactivation of its facility, said Adrian Chapman,vice president of regulatory affairs and energy acquisitions forWashington Gas.

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