Canonica

Gas supply this year is expected to fall below last year’slevels and will struggle to meet projected demand, the IndependentPetroleum Association of America indicated in a report released toinvestors in New York last week. With the gas rig count down abouta third compared to 1998 levels, U.S. production is expected to bedown 1.2% this year to 18.75 Tcf, while gas imports are expected torise 2.7% to about 3.22 Tcf, and gas demand is expected to shoot up3.2% to 21.97 Tcf.

Burlington Resources has joined forces with Enron Capital &ampTrade Resources Corp. in a gas gathering partnership that willserve the Wind River Basin in Wyoming, where processing andtransportation constraints have held back production in recentyears. The two companies have formed Lost Creek Gathering Co.L.L.C. to build a new 124-mile, 24-inch diameter wet gas gatheringheader from the Madden Field in central Wyoming to a processingplant located near Wamsutter, WY.

The 1 Bcf/d Vector Pipeline project has taken the lead amongmajor pipelines designed to move gas east from Chicago. Vector wonpreliminary approval on non-environmental grounds from FERC lastweek, which puts it ahead of the TriState Pipeline, IndependencePipeline and the Tennessee Eastern Express projects in the strugglethrough the regulatory process.