Deadline

Once again up against a regulator-imposed deadline, SouthernCalifornia Gas Co. is expected to file today its latest attempt ata final, all-parties settlement in California’s never-ending gasindustry restructuring, which has been dragging on for more thantwo years.

The new policy statement on pipeline certification, which callsfor incremental pricing of projects filed past a certain deadline,came under fire at FERC last week from a cross-section of interestsin the natural gas industry.

Columbia Energy Group’s (CG) board once again told NiSource, inno uncertain terms, to take a hike last week and urged CGshareholders to reject NiSource’s $68/share ($5.7 billion) hostiletakeover offer. NiSource took its offer to shareholders June 25 andsaid it will continue to fight for the deal. It had no tally ofshares tendered as of last week but said numbers would be availablesoon.

The majority of the oil and gas industry – 94% – report theircomputer systems will be ready by Sept. 30 to deal with anyglitches that may be brought on by the change to 2000, according tothe latest survey conducted by the Natural Gas Council and theAmerican Petroleum Institute (API). The entire industry expects tobe Y2K ready by the end of December.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission System isn’t going to make itssecond start-up deadline this month, but officials are promising tobe in service in early February. The pipeline originally expected152 MMcf/d of Canadian gas would begin flowing to New Englandmarkets last November.

March 17 is the deadline for bidders to present proposals tosupply and manage the natural gas, electric and water and sewerutility services for the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak)at facilities across the country. The current bill for the services- which Amtrak would like to see reduced – is $30 million a year.