Once again up against a regulator-imposed deadline, SouthernCalifornia Gas on Monday is expected to file its latest attempt ata final, all-parties settlement in California’s never-endingnatural gas industry restructuring, which has been dragging on formore than two years.

This will be at latest and fourth proposed settlement given tothe California Public Utilities Commission, if the large gas LDCmakes its filing as it indicated to parties on Friday that itwould. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has proposed two settlementsrelated to balancing and other issues on its system, and SoCalGasearlier filed an interim settlement proposal, which is designed tobe effective through next year. The final settlement would becomeeffective in 2002, running through Sept. 1, 2006.

SoCalGas was scrambling last week to get as many of the almost75 stakeholders in the settlement talks to sign on to the proposedfinal deal.

One of the key goals of regulators has been to have a gastransmission and storage system statewide that was more uniformbetween the north-south systems of PG&E and SoCalGas, but oneof the major stumbling blocks in the discussions has been theaspects of the southern transmission pipeline system that areunique to the southern half of the state.

At the 11th hour in the review process late last week, PG&Eexpressed concerns about the details of how designated primary andsecondary receipt points are treated on the SoCal transmissionsystem, particularly those receipt points for PG&E’s system andthe Kern/Mojave interstate pipeline.

Included in the proposed final settlement are new receipt pointsat Hector Road in the high desert west of the Arizona border andthe OXY point near Wheeler Ridge and the Kern County area. PG&Eexpressed last-minute concerns about the market not being allowedto determine who gets primary access rights as a means of ensuringthat SoCal does not over-sell these rights at any given receiptpoint which would eliminate chances for interruptible rights to beavailable there.

Richard Nemec, Los Angeles

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