Became

Williams’ Buccaneer Gas Pipeline became the first of threecompeting projects to serve Florida power generation demand to filewith the FERC yesterday. However, the other two greenfield projectsare anything but out of the race. And Florida’s only interstatepipeline to date, Florida Gas Transmission (FGT), also has plansfor two expansions under way that also target power generationdemand.

After six months of construction, the Thunder Creek Pipelinebecame operational earlier this month, Thunder Creek Gas Servicessaid. The 126-mile 450 MMcf/d trunkline system, which carries gasproduced from the Powder River Basin in Northeast Wyoming, begandelivering gas into the KN Interstate system on Sept.1.Construction of the line was completed last month. Thunder Creekalso has interconnects with the CIG system, Wyoming InterstateCo.’s proposed Medicine Bow Lateral and KN’s proposed Pathfinderline. The estimated cost of the Thunder Creek gathering trunkline,related compression and the processing plant is $100 million.Thunder Creek Gas Services is a joint venture between KN Energy andDevon Energy. Two other projects designed to transport gas from thebasin, the Fort Union Gathering project and the Northern Header GasGathering project, are still in construction. Fort Union GasGathering project, a 106-mile system, currently is being built by aconsortium of five companies. The Northern Header Gas Gatheringproject is a 256-mile system that would move up to 500 MMcf/d fromthe northeast end of the basin for CMS Oil & Gas and Pennaco.

Duke Energy Field Services became the top NGL producer in thecountry and the second largest gas marketer with completion of itspurchase of UPFuels, and Union Pacific Resources’ marketingoperations for $1.35 billion.

SaskEnergy and Enbridge Consumers Gas last week dropped out ofthe competition for a distribution franchise in Nova Scotia once itbecame clear the provincial government would allow industrialcustomers to apply for direct connections to the Maritimes andNortheast Pipeline. Their departure leaves only Sempra Atlantic Gasand Maritimes NRG competing for province-wide distributionfranchise rights and seven small municipal agencies competing forsite-specific franchises.

SaskEnergy and Enbridge Consumers Gas last week dropped out ofthe competition for a distribution franchise in Nova Scotia once itbecame clear the provincial government would allow industrialcustomers to apply for direct connections to the Maritimes andNortheast Pipeline. Their departure leaves only Sempra Atlantic Gasand Maritimes NRG competing for province-wide distributionfranchise rights and seven small municipal agencies competing forsite-specific franchises.

Coral Energy became the principal gas supplier to LDCMountaineer Gas Co. through an agreement giving Coral management ofvirtually all of Mountaineer’s total firm transportation andstorage entitlements. Effective Nov. 1, Coral will begin supplyingMountaineer, West Virginia’s largest LDC, about 25 Bcf/year forthree years. Gas will be supplied at a fixed price. Local gassupplies are not part of the deal and will continue to be managedby Mountaineer.

The $6.2 billion merger of Enova Corp. and Pacific Enterprisesfinally became official last week following approval of theSecurities and Exchange Commission. The merger creates SempraEnergy, a new San Diego-based Fortune 500 energy services holdingcompany with 12,000 employees, $10 billion in assets and thelargest regulated utility customer base in the nation.

Spurred by deregulation and the changing role of localdistribution companies, KeySpan Energy, parent of Brooklyn UnionGas, and Enron Capital & Trade Resources (ECT) made an allianceto market gas supply management services to LDCs throughout theNortheast.

If bullish natural gas futures traders became excited when theMay contract moved above the $2.70 mark yesterday morning, theirenthusiasm was tempered following the spot month’s daily close of$2.689. Although this represents a daily gain of 2.1 cents, onetrader is concerned that futures prices will be falling in the daysto come. “I was hoping a break above $2.70 would lead to a move to$2.80, but traders seemed pretty quick to slam the door. It lookslike profit taking has started ahead of the long holiday weekend,”he said. The New York Mercantile Exchange will be closed for GoodFriday.