Between

While oil and gas companies took huge hits during the 19-monthenergy price crash between 1997 and early 1999, one silver liningwas the effectiveness of government incentive programs in assistingthe beleaguered industry, said the Interstate Oil and Gas CompactCommission (IOGCC). The findings were drawn from an IOGCC reportpublished last week titled Against the Wind: The Economic Impact ofIncentives during the Oil Price Collapse.

A large negotiated rate contract between Northern Natural andits affiliated Enron North America Corp. made it through FERC lastweek, but not without a promise of further regulatory scrutiny.FERC accepted the deal, which covers about one-third of Northern’sfirm space, on the condition that the pipeline submit a detailedexplanation of how the various pricing options work. The follow-upreview is based largely on a protest filed by Northern shipper GPMGas.

Florida Gas Transmission postponed until further notice thereplacement of 120 feet of 36-inch pipe under High 331 betweenStations 12 and 13 in the Florida Panhandle, and also canceled theassociated Overage Alert Day east of Station 12. The project had beenscheduled for Thanksgiving Day (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16). FGT still planned to take Station14 down to tie in additional facilities but delayed the start date byone day to Saturday (Nov. 27). That outage is expected to lastthrough Dec. 1 and limits market area deliveries to about 1.3Bcf/d. However, FGT removed the Overage Alert Day notice that waspreviously posted for the work.

A large negotiated rate contract between Northern Natural andits affiliated Enron North America Corp. made it through FERCyesterday, but not without a promise of further regulatoryscrutiny. FERC accepted the deal, which covers about one-third ofNorthern’s firm space, on the condition that the pipeline submit adetailed explanation of how the various pricing options work. Thefollow-up review is based largely on a protest filed by Northernshipper GPM Gas.

A showdown that was brewing between FERC and New Jersey Gov.Christine Todd Whitman over the hotly contested MarketLinkexpansion was suddenly aborted on Friday when Chairman JamesHoecker pulled the project from the agenda for Tuesday’spre-Thanksgiving meeting.

Warm weather forecasts and the large separation between cash andfutures prices spoiled the nice rally futures traders had goinglate last week. Prices opened down a nickel, made slight gains andthen slid the rest of the day. After opening at $2.600, Decemberposted a mid-day high at $2.635 and then collapsed to a low of$2.520. It settled down 12.5 cents at $2.524. January lost 10.7cents to settle at $2.681, and February slipped 8.5 cents to endthe day at $2.640/MMBtu.

In its latest attack on the competing Guardian Pipeline project,Coastal Corp. affiliate American Natural Resources (ANR) maintainsdata from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission show Guardian’stransportation rate would be more than 30% higher than the rateoffered by ANR.

Despite recently proposing a massive $15 billion merger ofequals between Commonwealth Edison parent Unicom and Peco Energy,Unicom CEO John W. Rowe still has an appetite for growth. Hebelieves the combined company would need to get bigger in certainareas to remain competitive.

Despite recently proposing a massive $15 billion merger ofequals between Commonwealth Edison parent Unicom and Peco Energy,Unicom CEO John W. Rowe still has an appetite for growth. Hebelieves the combined company still needs to get bigger in certainareas to remain competitive.