Border

In light of “gaming” of natural gas wholesale prices at the California-Arizona border and ongoing pipeline constraints, the head of the California Public Utilities Commission Wednesday said she and her fellow regulators are looking to go farther than several current proposals for unbundling intrastate transmission and storage services by Southern California Gas Co.

Williams and BC Hydro applied to federal regulators on both sides of the Canadian border Tuesday to build a 94 MMcf/d natural gas transmission pipeline in the state of Washington, underwater in the Georgia Strait and on Vancouver Island in Canada to serve power plants in the area. With sufficient regulatory approvals, construction of the $159 million project could start in the fall of 2002 with operation of the pipeline beginning a year later.

As it had advised earlier (see Daily GPI, April 20), Sonat said Friday that maintenance on facilities at Logansport, LA on the Sabine River border with Texas required that upstream production be shut in effective Saturday (April 21). The work, affecting 59 receipt points in the Logansport and Joaquin Fields, is expected to run at least through the end of April, Sonat said. The pipeline found it unnecessary to issue a systemwide OFO Type 6 for Saturday, but said the probability for long imbalances was “too close to call” for Sunday and Monday.

El Paso Natural Gas “is willing to expand its system” to the California border if “sufficient support” for such a project can be demonstrated through long-term capacity contracts, the pipeline told FERC last week.

El Paso Natural Gas “is willing to expand its system” to theCalifornia border if “sufficient support” for such a project can bedemonstrated through long-term capacity contracts, the pipelinetold FERC.

Indicating how border-less the global economy is becoming,Kansas and Idaho have begun a regulatory partnership with CentralAmerica to promote energy interests.

Taking the first step to move across the Canadian border, NSPower Holdings Inc. announced plans to merge with its U.S.neighbor, Maine’s Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Taking the first step to move across the Canadian border, NSPower Holdings Inc. said Friday it will merge with its U.S.neighbor, Maine’s Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Gas prices shot to $5/MMBtu last Monday at the SouthernCalifornia border and PG&E Citygate, and hourly intra-daypeaking prices on the California Power Exchange spiked to $863/MWh.Day-ahead peaking power prices got as high as $470.