TransCanada PipeLines and Nicor Inc. have dropped their plans toproceed with what was to have been a revised Voyageur pipeline dueto a lack of commitments from Midwest shippers that would have beenserved by the project.

“We just couldn’t get enough contracts to make it financiallyviable,” said Carl Alston, a spokesman for Nicor, parent of NicorGas. There appeared to be a lot of support for the project, butwhen it came down to signing actual contracts, potential shippersbacked away, he said. The original Viking Voyageur project, a773-mile, 1.4 Bcf/d Manitoba-to-Chicago line, essentially lost outto Alliance and the Northern Border expansion in the westernCanada-to-U.S. Midwest race. The partners then floated plans to goin the opposite direction with a 1 Bcf/d, 150-mile line from theChicago hub north toward Milwaukee, WI, an area bypassed by the bigincoming pipelines.

Part of the trouble was that someone else had the idea first.Plans for an Illinois Wisconsin Express traversing a similar pathhad been announced a month earlier by a coalition of El PasoEnergy, Enron, Peoples Energy and Northern Border Pipeline. Alstonindicated that competition from other pipeline projects was partlythe reason for TransCanada’s and Nicor’s decision. “During the timewe were pursuing the project, the competitive climate changedimmensely” in the Midwest.

Nicor and TransCanada held an open season for their project inAugust and made the decision in mid-October to shelve the project,Alston said. They intend, however, to keep looking at that market,but they have no specific projects in mind.

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