Southern California Gas Co. confirmed plans to expand itsintrastate gas transportation system and make enhancements to itsstorage facilities to help meet record-setting gas demand byelectric generators in Southern California. SoCalGas Chairman EdwinA. Guiles informed California Public Utilities Commission PresidentLoretta Lynch of the plans in a March 27 letter.

He said the company had begun modifications to its system thatwill allow it to deliver an additional 175 MMcf/d by year end.SoCal’s Lad Lorenz told NGI last week the company was planning toincrease receipt point capacity at Wheeler Ridge where itinterconnects with Kern River and Mojave, at the Needles compressorstation where it interconnects with Transwestern Pipeline and at areceipt point for in-state production in the San Joaquin Valley(see Daily GPI, March 23). The Topock, AZ, border delivery point,which saw the sharpest price increases this winter, was not amongthe points slated for expansion because of the cost of expandingthere. The company plans to add 85 MMcf/d of capacity at WheelerRidge, 50 MMcf/d at Needles and 40 MMcf/d for in-state production.

“We are taking immediate action to increase compressionhorsepower at three delivery stations to boost the amount ofnatural gas that can be transported into The Gas Company’sintrastate pipeline system,” said Guiles. “In light of theuncertainties surrounding future demand for natural gas on The GasCompany’s system, these modifications are the least cost way thatwe can be assured of meeting the gas demands of all of ourcustomers and avoid any possibility for curtailments of service.”Guiles said the proposed 5% increase in capacity would be enough toserve another 1.3 million residential customers per day or to power1,200 MW of new baseload electric generation.

“The improvements are consistent with SoCalGas’ goals ofmaintaining as much as 20% more capacity than our requirements forperiods of normal demand,” he said.

SoCalGas also is proposing some adjustments to its gas storageoperations that will help increase the in-state supply of naturalgas by 24 Bcf – or enough gas to serve a half million residentialcustomers for one year – over the next year. It already has on fileat the CPUC plans to abandon the Montebello storage field in LosAngeles County and withdraw the 10-12 Bcf of base and working gasthat remains in the field. In addition, the company is planning todrill several new wells at its Aliso Canyon and La Goleta storagefields in order to remove 14 Bcf of base gas, split evenly betweenthe two fields, and sell it into the market. The reduction in basegas is expected to have no impact on the amount of working gascapacity available in each field.

Because of strong gas demand last summer, the levels of naturalgas at the company’s underground storage reservoirs reached nearhistoric lows this winter. The LDC is encouraging non-core shippersto get a head start on storage injections this year because itexpects demand to remain strong in 2001.

“Our goal for this year is to have no curtailments of gasservice to our customers, but we need to maximize the use of ourexisting intrastate capacity in order to reach our goal,” saidGuiles. “We’re telling our large industrial and electric generationcustomers that the best way that they can avoid curtailments nextwinter is to make full use of the available pipeline space and putnatural gas in storage whenever possible, particularly during thesecond quarter of this year.

“I believe that, if undertaken, these proposals will have apositive impact on reliability next winter,” said Guiles.

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