Bite

After giving Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) asecond bite at the apple, FERC last week said the pipeline hadsufficiently defended a proposed tariff revision that would allowit to hold its shippers liable for damages resulting fromlower-quality gas entering its system.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) continued amassing gasassets yesterday, buying an indirect 33.3% interest in TrailblazerPipeline from an affiliate of Columbia Energy Group for $38 millionin cash. The move comes only a week after Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI),parent of the general partner in KMP, announced plans to transfer$700 million in former KN Energy assets to the company, includinganother 33.3% share in Trailblazer.

As opposed to rejecting it outright, FERC last week gave ANRPipeline another bite at the apple to justify its proposal toestablish firm and interruptible hourly flow services to meet thegrowing gas demand of electric generators. In the meantime, itaccepted and suspended the pipeline’s tariff sheets for theproposed services.

California, as the nation’s early poster child for energyindustry restructuring, has to bite the bullet and decide if itwants robust retail competition for natural gas and electricity, orwhether it wants to stop where it is now with wholesalecompetition, “declare victory and everyone go home,” said thestate’s top energy regulator, Richard Bilas, an economist andpresident of the California Public Utilities Commission. If itwants retail competition, then the state should consider adoptingsome of the aspects of Georgia’s gas restructuring andPennsylvania’s electricity changes.

Following Thursday’s remarkable 27-cent spike, natural gasprices eased Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange as tradersrolled out of near-month October contracts in favor of wintermonths. While the October contract finished down 6.7 cents, theloss was much less severe for November, which closed down 1.5cents. December and January 2000 contracts resisted the downturnaltogether, notching gains of 4 cents and 2.2 cents respectively.

After Monday’s almost universal double-digit increases, cashprices were on auto-pilot Tuesday, as they trended down from theprevious day’s results. Many traders said Monday’s run-up would bethis week’s high, pointing to moderating weather and the thecompletion of pipeline maintenance projects.

Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp. reported yesterday that it expectssecond-quarter net income for the entire corporation to take a hitof about $80 million as a result of the supply constraints andsubsequent market volatility in late June that sent spot prices fora MWh of power soaring into the thousands of dollars.

The controversy over the terms and conditions of the contractsgiving Natural Gas Clearinghouse a large bite of the westboundtransportation capacity on El Paso Natural Gas – capacity that wasdestined to be turned back to the pipeline at the end of last year- is expected to take center stage at FERC next week. Marketers andproducers say they plan to make a case that the contracts areanticompetitive and contain illegal negotiated terms andconditions, and are responsible for the run-up in transportationrates on El Paso’s system to the California border.