Delays

In an 11th-hour move yesterday, California regulators delayeduntil August a proposed interim action that would expand naturalgas unbundling and set an aggressive schedule for a final gasrestructuring decision by year end. The proposal, which includesunbundling billing and eliminating any restrictions on current gasaggregation among residential and small business customers, will beconsidered when the California PUC meets again Aug. 6.

The number of proposed major pipeline projects on schedule forservice in winter 1999 continues to dwindle, with IndependencePipeline telling FERC yesterday it plans to delay service by a yearuntil November 2000. The pipeline’s sponsors said the $678 millionproject will be delayed because of the lengthy construction timerequired. FERC still has not approved the project. Markets for the400-mile pipeline system also have been slow to develop, butsponsors said they recently executed an additional precedentagreement with Eastern Energy Marketing for 99,000 Dth/d of firmtransportation capacity, bringing subscriptions to nearly 70% ofthe pipeline’s 916 MMcf/d capacity.