Coastal

Although opening up the coastal region of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration is high on his list of things he would like to see accomplished, President Bush said last week that if Congress should fail to pass legislation to allow drilling in the Alaska region it will only toughen his resolve to lift restrictions on unprotected federal lands to drill for natural gas and oil.

Although opening up the coastal region of the Arctic NationalWildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration is high on his list of thingsto do, President Bush said yesterday that if Congress should failto pass legislation to allow drilling in the Alaska region it willonly toughen his resolve to lift restrictions on other federallands for producers.

After completing its merger with The Coastal Corp., El PasoEnergy Corp. announced that it has completed restructuring andterminated 1,650 employees from the combined company’s approximate16,500 employee work force. Of the employees let go, 585 willremain with the company until their current assignment iscompleted, but none later than June 30. El Paso also announced thatadditional employees left voluntarily, and 1,635 workers opted forthe early retirement package. Employees that were not retained areeligible for full severance benefits, including a cash paymentbased on term of service. El Paso said that staff reductions tookplace everywhere the company does business. High employeeconcentration areas such as Colorado Springs, Detroit, El Paso andHouston were hardest hit by the cutbacks. Reductions ocurred in allbusiness units at all levels of the company, El Paso said.

In an effort to compete with newcomer Vector Pipeline, Coastal’s ANR Pipeline, Great Lakes Gas Transmission and TransCanada PipeLines have joined forces to provide a hub-to-hub transportation service between Chicago, IL, and Dawn, ON.

In an effort to compete with newcomer Vector Pipeline, Coastal’sANR Pipeline, Great Lakes Gas Transmission and TransCanadaPipeLines have joined forces to provide a hub-to-hub transportationservice between Chicago, IL, and Dawn, ON.

Coastal Corp.’s Gulfstream Natural Gas System has sent a requestfor quotation (RFQ) to 10 pre-qualified contractors for installationof the offshore portion of its proposed 744-mile natural gas pipelinefrom Alabama across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida. The RFQ calls foroffshore assembly and installation of more than 400 miles of 36-inchdiameter pipe to to serve Gulfstream’s customers in Florida. Thepipeline says it has 10 large, non-affiliated Florida utilities andpower generation facilities signed to long-term commitments for themajority of its capacity. Gulfstream is one of two largeunder-the-Gulf pipelines proposed to serve the Florida Peninsula. TheFederal Energy Regulatory Commission last month issued preliminaryapprovals for both Gulfstream and Buccaneer pipelines, each of whichproposes to carry about a Bcf/d into the state. The latter issponsored by Williams and Duke Energy (see Daily GPI, April 26).

Continuing to push its advantage as the main gas supplier inWisconsin, Coastal’s ANR Pipeline Co. announced last week thatAlliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power & Light Co. (WP&L) hasagreed to extend its transportation and storage service agreementsfrom 2000 and 2003 to 2003 and 2010, respectively. The PublicService Commission of Wisconsin (PSC-W) has approved theagreements. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Continuing to push its advantage as the main gas supplier inWisconsin, Coastal’s ANR Pipeline Co. announced yesterday thatAlliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power & Light Co. (WP&L) hasagreed to extend to 2003 and 2010, respectively, its transportationand storage service agreements, which are due to expire in 2000 and2003. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC-W) hasapproved the agreements. Financial terms were not disclosed.

El Paso Energy and The Coastal Corp. announced through a jointproxy statement mailed Friday that special meetings of stockholderswill be held May 5 in Houston to vote on the proposed combinationof the two companies. Stockholders of record on March 17 will beeligible to vote. The merger was announced Jan. 18.