Down

Transwestern’s Bisti Compressor Station, located downstream ofthe Bloomfield Compressor Station on the San Juan lateral will bedown for unplanned maintenance Wednesday and Thursday. San JuanLateral Capacity will be approximately 700,000 MMBtu/d. Monitor thepipeline’s web site for updates.

Congestion is about a $100 to $200 million problem in thePennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) independent system operator(ISO) area, but it is being addressed through a combination ofmanagement and capital improvement steps that include a long listof natural gas-fired new generating plants, according to anexecutive with the PJM ISO’s regional power district, the largestin the nation.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbiahas struck down a controversial part of the Interior Department’s1997 royalty valuation rule for natural gas, which incorporatedmarketing costs in the valuation. (Civ. No. 98-00531)

The cash market kept rising in most cases Tuesday, but exceptfor some Northeast citygates with gains of about a nickel or more,quotes generally ranged from flat to only 2-3 cents higher.

“We were too optimistic,” El Paso admitted in saying that the Belen#1 turbine had gone down again after the pipeline announced Thursdayafternoon it had been repaired (see Daily GPI, March 10). San Juan Crossover capacityremained limited Friday to 630 MMcf/d, 20 MMcf/d below normal. El Pasoexpected to test the Belen turbine for a possible return to serviceSaturday. Maintenance on the Bondad Station’s 2A turbine was completedFriday.

With a relative whimper, not a bang, a major rate case forPacific Gas and Electric Co. ended last Thursday with Californiaregulators on a 3-2 vote giving the utility about one-third of whatit originally requested. The raise still is quite large, however,at $229 million/annually, including a 6% hike in gas rates. Thehike amounts to about another $20/year for the typical residentialcustomer. Electric rates were hiked by $136 million/year, but therewill be no change in those rates because of the ongoing rate freezethat’s been in effect since 1996 as part of the state’s electricindustry restructuring.

With a relative whimper, not a bang, a major rate case forPacific Gas and Electric Co. ended last Thursday with Californiaregulators on a 3-2 vote giving the utility about one-third what itoriginally requested. The raise still is quite large, however, at$229 million/annually, including a 6% hike in gas rates. The hikeamounts to about another $20/year for the typical residentialcustomer. Electric rates were hiked by $136 million/year, but therewill be no change in those rates because of the ongoing rate freezethat’s been in effect since 1996 as part of the state’s electricindustry restructuring.

A peak at some producer year-end results suggests average dailydomestic gas production could be down about 3% 1998 to 1999.

It may be time for all the critics of the proposed Independence,MarketLink and Millennium expansions to pipe down. Gasdeliverability to the Northeast clearly is not as rosy as manyindustry experts once thought as illustrated by the record high gasprices last week during a period of extreme cold.