Associated

Seizing upon a deadline ultimatum recently issued by FERC forthe proposed Independence Pipeline and associated SupplyLinkexpansion, Pennsylvania Rep. Frank LaGrotta has called on theCommission to revoke the certificate for the construction of thecontroversial, multi-state project.

Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) will begin a month-long open season Dec. 12 for pipeline capacity associated with its 95-mile, 24-inch Patriot Extension of the East Tennessee Natural Gas system into portions of southwest Virginia and North Carolina.

Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. has agreed to purchase all of theoutstanding common shares and associated rights of Crestar Energyfor approximately $177 million in cash and 181 million ordinaryshares of gulf. More than 90% of the Crestar shares have beentendered, and Gulf will also exercise its statutory rights topurchase the remaining shares. The deal was first announced inOctober (see Daily GPI, Oct. 3). Dick Auchinleck, CEO of Gulf, saidthe acquisition will give the company a “balanced portfolio ofassets and a substantial presence in North America’s gas markets,where our gas production more than doubles.” He said the move alsowill provide cash flow to fund the development of prospects atSurmont, the Mackenzie Delta, offshore Eastern Canada and overseas.When the merger is completed, the combined entity will produce288,000 boe/d in 2001, before anticipated asset sales of up to20,000 boe/d. Combined proved oil reserves would be 586 millionbarrels and gas reserves would total 3.3 Tcf.

Transwestern extended through at least Saturday the force majeureassociated with a freight train derailment near its mainline innorthwest new Mexico (see Daily GPI, Nov. 2). The derailed cars have beenremoved but harsh weather delayed the start of pipe inspection untilFriday, a spokeswoman said. Crews were hoping to restore servicebetween Stations 5 and 6 Sunday, she said. A capacity constraintremained in effect going into the weekend, but it had been reducedfrom 400,000 MMBtu/d to 300,000 MMBtu/d.

Sonat lifted Saturday an OFO Type 1 and force majeure associatedwith a shut-in test of its Bear Creek (LA) Storage Facility. BearCreek’s injection/withdrawal capacity was restored to 100%.

The sponsors of Independence Pipeline and the associatedSupplyLink expansion project informed FERC on Friday that theyaccepted the mid-July decision awarding them certificates toconstruct their controversial Midwest-to-East Coast pipelineproject. The order is still subject to rehearing at the Commissionand then possibly to a court review. Combined, the two projects —SupplyLink, an upstream expansion of sponsor ANR Pipeline’sexisting system; and Independence, a 400-mile greenfield pipelinefrom Defiance, OH, to the Leidy Hub — would add about 1 Bcf/d ofwest-to-east firm transportation capacity at $803 million, servingthe growing gas needs of power generators in the east andNortheast. Partners in Independence are ANR, Williams’Transcontinental Gas Pipeline and National Fuel Gas Co.Independence and SupplyLink projects are targeted for in-service inNovember 2002.

Conoco Canada Limited, completed the acquisition of outstandingassets associated with the purchase of Petro-Canada’s natural gasliquids (NGL) business, the company said yesterday. The additionincreases Conoco’s total net natural gas liquid production inCanada, the U.S. and Trinidad by 65%, to 105,000 bpd, and triplesnet processing capacity to 3.4 Bcf/d, while reducing per-barreloverhead and operating costs by 24%.

The third time was not the charm. After avoiding the usualsoftness associated with lower weekend demand for two weeks in arow, prices finally bowed to the inevitable Friday and dropped bysmall amounts of a nickel or less nearly across the board.

In a break from the usual price downturns associated withend-of-the-week gas trading, many markets points posted no gain orsmall increases Friday. Northeast points were the notable exceptionas expected wintery weather for the weekend caused significantprice jumps.