Independence Pipeline told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week it still has not gained access to sections of its proposed right of way in Ohio because of landowner opposition. It also lacks contracts for the required 68% of its proposed 1 Bcf/d of firm capacity. Only about 38% so far has been subscribed, all of it by Dynegy Corp. As a result, pipeline sponsors request that the project in-service date be delayed until November 2004 from July 2003. Extensions also were requested for the related SupplyLink project sponsored by ANR Pipeline.

“In Ohio there are still some tracks we have been unable to get survey permission for. We did not want to force access or go to condemnation so we just skipped those tracks and moved along and gathered as much data as we could,” said El Paso spokesman Joe Martucci.

“We are also still not at the level [of contract demand] required by FERC to begin construction (68% of the capacity),” he said. “What we’ve found is that it is very difficult in the environment we have today with uncertainty in the energy markets to get customers to the point where they are willing to commit to long-term contracts.

“However, we also submitted a marketing study to the Commission along with the implementation plan, and it shows that by 2005 in the Northeast there is going to be pretty significant demand for additional pipeline capacity. We did the best we could. There are any number of studies out there that say we need more capacity for the Northeast for electric power generation.” He said the pipeline now would begin construction in the spring of 2004.

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