1999

Putting pipeline sponsors at risk for their projects would be a”useful check” against the overbuilding of new capacity into theburgeoning Northeast market, but it’s not a cure-all for all of theconcerns that accompany such projects, FERC Commissioner WilliamMassey told a group of industrial gas customers.

Putting pipeline sponsors at risk for their projects would be a”useful check” against the overbuilding of new capacity into theburgeoning Northeast market, but it’s not a cure-all for all of theissues that accompany such projects, FERC Commissioner WilliamMassey told industrial gas customers last week.

Amoco Production Co. of Houston and a large group of royalty owners won a resounding victory at the U.S. Supreme Court last week over the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. The 7-to-1 decision gives Amoco and the royalty owners title to an estimated $200 million worth of coal-bed methane (CBM) gas on the tribe’s reservation in southwestern Colorado and is seen as good news for coal-bed methane development.

After more than five months of operating short-handed, thefive-member California Public Utilities Commission has gone throughits version of governor’s appointees “musical chairs” in less thana week. First, there were two “temporary” appointees announcedinformally two weeks ago. Then two permanent, six-year appointeeswere named by Gov. Gray Davis.

After slipping more than a dime Thursday, the futures marketcontinued lower Friday morning as traders continued the process oflightening their long positions. The July contract carved out a$2.325 low before 11 AM. That, however, was about all the sellingpressure the market would tolerate and scaled down trade buyinglifted the market throughout the rest of the day. July finished at$2.378, up 2.3 cents. Estimated volume was light, with only 45,070contracts changing hands.

Are fuel cells catching on? Plug Power, a pioneer in the fuelcell industry incorporated in 1997 with 25 employees, now has 250.The company broke ground this week for a 50,000 square feetmanufacturing facility that will double its current space.

NiSource has named former Vastar CEO William A. (Andy) Lang asthe new president and COO of TPC Corp., which it purchased fromPacifiCorp for $150 million in April. Lang and several other newofficials have been hired to rebuild TPC’s energy marketingoperations and grow its exiting portfolio management business.

Just in case there were any doubters still out there, AlliancePipeline says it now has nine of 10 mainline construction crews inthe field installing the $3 billion pipeline system. The crewsstarted construction on two spreads in North Dakota, one inMinnesota, two in Iowa, one in Illinois and two in Saskatchewan. AThird crew is starting in Saskatchewan this week.

Merger partners Sempra Energy and KN Energy contend that QuestarPipeline, which claims their marriage would subvert gas andelectric competition in southern California, is seeing monsterswhere none exist. Nevertheless, they agreed to make certainconcessions to Questar to remove a potential threat to their mergertransaction.