Guardian Pipeline, a planned new interstate natural gas pipelineto serve northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, is movingforward with an open season that will begin May 4. The pipelinewill have a minimum capacity of 650 MMcf/d and will be expandable,depending on the market response, to a capacity of up to 1.1 Bcf/d.It already has signed a firm precedent agreement with Wisconsin Gasto transport 650 MMcf/d, beginning Nov. 1, 2002, the project’splanned in-service date. The pipeline will transport gas frominterconnections with Alliance, Northern Border, NICOR, Midwestern,NGPL and the proposed Tristate Pipeline near Joliet, IL, tonorthern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin markets. It willconsist of 24,000 hp of compression and 147 miles of 36-inch pipeextending from Joliet to the Watertown, WI area. Guardian isjointly owned by WICOR, CMS Energy Corp. and Viking GasTransmission, with each holding a one-third interest. The openseason closes June 3. For more information contact George Hass,313-436-9238.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has asked FERC to declare five lateralsin Texas as non-jurisdictional gathering and allow it to abandonand sell them to affiliate El Paso Field Services. The WestMagnolia, Chesterville, Bay City, Hungerford, and Village MillsLateral Systems fit the description of gathering, Tennessee said,adding that they currently are little used. The pipeline said it isno longer necessary for it to own the gathering lines since it nolonger sells bundled gas services. Detaching them from theTennessee system will “improve Tennessee’s ability to streamlineits mainline transmission operations.” Also the systems would bebetter able to compete with other unregulated gathering services ifthey are not tied to a jurisdictional pipeline.

Calgary-based TransCanada Gas Processing said volumes at theCutbank Joule-Thompson (J-T) plant have increased significantlysince operations began last month due to tie-in of Chevron CanadaResources production four months ahead of schedule. The TransCanadaGas Processing partnership has a 61% interest in TCM Facilities LP,which owns the Cutbank gathering and processing facilities. The 100MMcf/d Cutbank J-T plant, about 50 miles south of Grande Prairie,AB, was built to meet anticipated demand for processinghigh-pressure gas brought on by a recent discovery in the area. TheCutbank J-T Plant is 100% owned by TFL and was built by Chevron.Initial throughput has been provided by Chevron-operated gas wells.”The start-up of the Cutbank J-T Plant and the timely tie-in ofnatural gas production illustrates the immediate growth potentialin areas served by TFL and is expected to significantly increaseTFL’s throughput volumes from the 138.1 MMcf/d reported from allfive TFL facilities in 1998,” said Randy Findlay, president ofTransCanada Gas Processing.”

Dallas-based Panda Energy International plans to build a 1,000MW gas-fired generation plant in Coweta, OK, near Tulsa. Theplant’s maximum daily gas consumption will be about 170,000MMBtu/d. Gas supply and transportation agreements are expected tobe finalized in the next several months. The 77-acre site is nearan existing Public Service Company of Oklahoma substation that willbe used to carry the new plant’s energy to markets throughout theeastern U.S. grid. The project is the latest is a series of newinitiatives announced by Panda, which will bring about 10,000 MW ofgenerating capacity on line within the next few years, said DarolLindloff, president of Panda Energy. Construction is scheduled tobegin in June 2000, and commercial operations are expected to startin December 2001.

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