Accepting

Columbia Gulf said it will begin accepting nominations Wednesday for up to 183,000 Dth/d Egan Hub Storage in South Louisiana following a one-day maintenance shutdown of Egan Tuesday. The pipeline had previously expected to have only 150,000 Dth/d of Egan capacity available Wednesday (see Daily GPI, July 26).

Unocal Corp. apparently was within a whisker of accepting a purchase agreement from CNOOC Ltd. (which is 70% owned by the Chinese government) based on documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Monday — Unocal’s first disclosure of recent board meetings and communications on the matter.

Destin reported reopening the valve on its export line at Main Pass 260 and was accepting Intraday 2 (cycle 4) nominations for Monday’s gas day. The pipeline had turned off the valve to offshore receipts upstream of Main Pass 260 at 3 p.m. Friday in preparation for the approach of Hurricane Dennis (see Daily GPI, July 11).

The House Ways and Means Committee completed its mark-up of a much-leaner energy tax package Wednesday, accepting Chairman Bill Thomas’s (R-CA) mark and rejecting all amendments, a committee aide said.. The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated the tax portion of the energy bill will cost the Treasury $8.1 billion between 2005 and 2015, which is less than one third of the cost of the energy tax breaks and incentives approved by the House in late 2003.

Due to unscheduled maintenance on the Terrebonne system’s 319B-1900 line, Trunkline will not be accepting nominations at the South Timbalier 187, 185 and 179B meters starting Friday. The work is expected to last for three days.

FERC last Tuesday issued an order accepting a global settlement reached between Duke Energy, several California parties and Commission staff resolving matters stemming from the 2000-2001 California energy crisis as they relate to Duke.

Enstor Operating Co. LLC said it is accepting bids for firm storage capacity at the Katy Storage Hub that will be available starting April 1, 2005. Non binding bids are due Oct. 29. The Katy Hub is connected to eight Texas intrastate and four interstate pipeline systems. Katy has a total storage capacity of 21 Bcf. Firm storage services of up to five annual cycles will be offered. Enstor also is offering capacity at its proposed Houston Storage Hub, which is expected to be connected to seven interstate and intrastate pipelines. It would provide 10 annual cycles of storage service. Total working storage capacity at the Houston Hub is expected to be 18 Bcf with a maximum deliverability of 1.5 Bcf/d. For more details contact Patrick DeVille at (281) 374-3053 or go to Enstor’s website at www.enstorinc.com.

Effective Friday, Sonat will not be accepting daily nominations for injections into interruptible accounts (ISS or Park and Loan) that rely on storage. The pipeline noted that it will not schedule due-pipeline imbalance makeups “on any day and cycle when we are limiting any nominations for injections under services that rely on interruptible storage.”

FERC recently issued an order conditionally accepting an offer of settlement previously filed by Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. (OG&E), clearing the way for the utility to move forward with its efforts to buy a majority stake in an Oklahoma power plant from NRG McClain.