Competitors

With just over a year to go before the new Alberta-to-Chicagolink, Alliance Pipeline, goes into service TransCanada PipeLinesand affiliate Nova Gas Transmission already are feeling the impactof the competition.

While ANR Pipeline has maintained all along that competitors to its Wisconsin system expansion – the Guardian and Horizon pipelines – are very bad indeed, it doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion.

National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. and ANR Pipeline, sponsors of theproposed Independence Pipeline, are espousing a system alternativethat essentially would result in a considerably scaled-down versionof the competing Millennium Pipeline project.

National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. and ANR Pipeline, sponsors of theproposed Independence Pipeline, are espousing a system alternativethat essentially would result in a considerably scaled-down projectfor the competing Millennium Pipeline project.

SaskEnergy and Enbridge Consumers Gas last week dropped out ofthe competition for a distribution franchise in Nova Scotia once itbecame clear the provincial government would allow industrialcustomers to apply for direct connections to the Maritimes andNortheast Pipeline. Their departure leaves only Sempra Atlantic Gasand Maritimes NRG competing for province-wide distributionfranchise rights and seven small municipal agencies competing forsite-specific franchises.

Southern California Gas Co. has filed its latest two-yearcost-allocation rate proposal with California state regulators,proposing a massive $204 million rate cut, including transportationrate decreases for all customers with the largest targeted forlarge industrial and wholesale customers.

Even though construction of the intrastate Front Range Pipelinealready is in progress and work on the Front Runner Pipeline isexpected to start “fairly soon,” the sponsors have disclosed thatthey are continuing discussions to possibly combine the two rivalprojects into a single pipeline to serve the growing Colorado gasmarket.