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Houston Industries said last week it will meet the deregulatingenergy industry with a new name, Reliant Energy, which will begintrading under its new ticker symbol (NYSE:REI) Feb. 8.

Enterprise Products Partners LP of Houston subsidiary EnterpriseProducts Operating LP and five other energy companies have agreedon the ownership and operating terms of Tri-States NGL PipelineLLC.

TransColorado Gas Transmission started pressuring up it Phase 2extension into western Colorado last week and expects to begintransportation services from the northern Rockies to the San JuanBasin some time next month, pending FERC approval of its ratedesign.

The first of a series of industry-sponsored meetings aimed atbringing the divided gas segments closer together on some of themajor regulatory initiatives proposed by FERC got underway inHouston last week. Not surprisingly, industry representatives atthe initial session agreed to narrow the “primary focus” of theirnegotiations to two proposals to ease pipeline rate regulation -short-term capacity auctioning and negotiated terms and conditions.

FERC yesterday approved an initiative paving the way for it tobegin discussions with state regulators as a preliminary step topotentially dividing up the nationwide electricity transmissiongrid into regional districts and boundaries to further promotecompetition and eliminate undue discrimination against powercustomers.

Statoil Energy is bullish on gas prices this winter and over thelong haul, so bullish, in fact, it may begin long-term LNGimporting in the next few years, company officials said at a pressbriefing last week at the company’s U.S. headquarters inAlexandria, VA.

National Fuel has filed an application with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission to begin a system-wide customer choiceprogram starting in April. The program would be a major expansionof the company’s current Energy Select pilot in Mercer County, inwhich 19,700 retail gas customers were allowed — actually forced– to choose alternative suppliers beginning in June 1997. Theexpanded program would offer a choice of suppliers to 210,000customers in National Fuel’s 14 county service territory. It alsowould include some significant differences from the Energy Selectpilot.

National Fuel has filed an application with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission to begin a system-wide customer choiceprogram starting next April. The program would be a major expansionof the company’s current Energy Select pilot in Mercer County, inwhich 19,700 retail gas customers were allowed – actually forced -to choose alternative suppliers beginning in June 1997. Theexpanded program would offer a choice of suppliers to 210,000customers in National Fuel’s 14 county service territory. It alsowould include some significant differences from the Energy Selectpilot.

As several observers expected, cash prices started to retracetheir steps back down Thursday after having peaked the day before.Declines ranged from as little as a nickel to nearly 15 cents, butmost were in the neighborhood of a dime.