Conditions

Tennessee Gas Pipeline is violating the Negotiated Rates Policystatement in attempting to keep secret rollover agreements with twocustomers to extend capacity contracts for three to four yearsbeyond their November, 2000 expiration date, according to a protestfrom producer shippers. And the shippers fear there may be othersin the near future because much of Tennessee’s capacity is undercontracts expiring Nov. 1, 2000 which require notification a yearin advance of the deadline.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline is violating the Negotiated Rates Policystatement in attempting to keep secret rollover agreements with twocustomers to extend capacity contracts for three to four yearsbeyond their November, 2000 expiration date, according to a protestfrom producer shippers. And the shippers fear there may be othersin the near future because much of Tennessee’s capacity is undercontracts expiring Nov. 1, 2000 which require notification a yearin advance of the deadline.

Bears came out of the gate in force Thursday in reaction to ahigher than expected 91 Bcf storage injection, a plummeting futuresscreen and cooling temperatures in the Northeast. But for all thesound and fury most points stayed flat to Wednesday’s results orregistered minuscule drops of a penny or so.

All-around price increases Wednesday received support fromcontrasting weather conditions and rising power generation load(plus a tiny assist from a barely higher screen). Most upticks werein the neighborhood of 4-8 cents, although smaller ones were aslittle as two cents at the PG&E citygate.

Viking Gas Transmission’s proposed expansion of its existingsystem in Minnesota would have “no significant impact” onenvironmental conditions provided the pipeline follows certainmitigation measures during construction, according to a FERC staffenvironmental assessment (EA) released last week.

Columbia Energy President and CEO Oliver G. “Rick” Richard IIIsays proposals for seasonal ratemaking and negotiated terms andconditions are the most important of the reform initiatives pendingbefore FERC, and deserve priority. Obtaining regulatory approvalfor both will be a “key initiative” of pipelines this year.

Texas Eastern’s 300 MMcf/d Lebanon Lateral expansion wasapproved by FERC this week with a few conditions, including placingthe pipeline at risk for the cost of unused capacity on the line.The project would add 17,070 hp of compression to the 114-mileline, which stretches from an interconnection with PanhandleEastern near Gas City, IN, to interconnections with Tetco, CNGTransmission and Columbia gas at Lebanon, OH. Total capacity of thesystem following the expansion would be about 660 MMcf/d. Threeshippers, including Dayton Power and Light, Duke Energy and PublicService Electric and Gas signed up for 28% of the proposedcapacity.

After meeting significant conditions to mitigate market power,Enova Corp. and Pacific Enterprises, holding companies of San DiegoGas & Electric and Southern California Gas, respectively,received final FERC approval yesterday of their $6.6 billionmerger. FERC approved the merger application with only minorcode-of-conduct modifications.

Subject to certain conditions and a pending a technicalconference, FERC has approved a plan (RP98-140-000) allowingTennessee Gas Pipeline to reserve unused pipeline capacity, sellingit under short-term contracts, up to one year if the capacity canbe used to support a proposed expansion project. The tariff changewas made effective by the Commission on March 25