Southern California Gas will hold a one-day auction Sept. 1 tosell its exclusive rights to buy 370 miles of large-diametertransmission pipeline and related facilities currently transporting1.1 Bcf/d of supplies from Rocky Mountain and Southwest supplysources. The winning bid(s) will be announced Sept. 16, SoCalGasofficials said this week. A previously announced June8-through-mid-July auction was canceled because of state regulatorydelays, they said. Both the auction and results will be accessiblethrough the large gas-only distribution utility’s on-line GasSelectservice and company website on the Internet(www.socalgas.com/3rdparty/kern).

The gas company would offer no predictions regarding prices orthe number of participants in the multi-round bidding, which wasdelayed pending approvals from the California Public UtilitiesCommission.

Some California energy observers indicated earlier in the summerthat Kern River and Mojave pipelines, the two interstate pipelinesthat connect with the California transmission pipelines for whichSoCalGas has exclusive rights, each may be bidders on theCalifornia pipelines, which they now own and operate. PG&ECorp. also could be a prospective bidder with its extensivetransmission pipeline presence in the state.

SoCalGas gained exclusive rights to buy the California portionsof Kern (700 MMcf/d) and Mojave (400 MMcf/d) in 2012 as part of adeal struck in 1992 when the two out-of-state pipelines wereseeking authorization to build new gas supply lines into the state.Subsequently, SoCal was mandated to sell its rights as part ofregulatory approvals of the recently completed merger that formedSan Diego-based Sempra Energy, the parent of both SoCalGas and SanDiego Gas and Electric.

Buying rights involved in the auction cover the followingfacilities: Kern River’s 120 miles of 36-inch-diameter pipelinefrom the California-Nevada border to Daggett, about 150 milesnortheast of Los Angeles; Mojave’s 145 miles of 30-inch-diameterpipeline from the Colorado River to Daggett where it interconnectswith Kern; and about 105 miles of jointly owned, 42-inch-diameterpipeline with two spurs and customer metering and other relatedfacilities in the south end of the San Joaquin Valley nearBakersfield, CA.

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