Earlier

Northwest lifted Tuesday an entitlement for undertakes north ofKemmerer (WY) Station that had begun a week earlier (see Daily GPI, Nov. 10). Although linepack has returned toan acceptable level, the pipeline said, Jackson Prairie storage”remains virtually full with approximately 300,000 [dekatherms] ofavailable physical capacity.” Northwest is not authorizing anyimbalance paybacks until further notice.

Williams Energy Marketing and Trading enlarged its supplyportfolio earlier this week by inking a 20-year gas supply andpower purchase deal with a Cleco Evangeline power plant. Accordingto the deal, Williams will both supply gas (up to 150 millionMMBtu/d) to the plant and market its output. Financial terms of thearrangement were not disclosed. The plant is still underconstruction and is expected to begin operations in June.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners(NARUC) and Colorado regulators earlier this week urged the FERCmajority to throw in the towel in its effort to re-cast itsauthority under the Hinshaw amendment.

Because of Peachtree Natural Gas’ filing for Chapter 11protection earlier this week, Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) filed amotion Wednesday with the federal bankruptcy court requesting all177,000 Peachtree customers be randomly assigned to more”creditworthy” suppliers, the LDC said yesterday. Peachtree, whichis the third largest marketer in the state, has assured the GeorgiaPublic Service Commission (GPSC) that gas service will continueundisturbed despite the filing, and is pinning its future inGeorgia on a potential suitor to bail it out of its monetarytroubles.

El Paso Energy Corp. and Sonat Inc. completed their $6 billionmerger yesterday. As NGI reported earlier, the two companies jumpedthe final hurdle when El Paso agreed to the FTC’s terms to divestits 100% ownership in East Tennessee Natural Gas Co., Sonat’s 100%ownership of Sea Robin Pipeline Co., and Sonat’s one-third interestin Destin Pipeline Co., L.L.C. following the merger (see Daily GPI,Oct. 25). The transaction creates a transmission system comprisingover 40,000 miles, which El Paso said is the largest system inNorth America both in terms of throughput and miles of pipeline.The new El Paso’s pipeline systems will transport 12.4 Bcf/d-fullyone quarter of the natural gas volumes transported in the UnitedStates. The combined company will be headquartered in Houston.Sonat’s headquarters will remain in Birmingham, AL, and El PasoNatural Gas Co. will remain in El Paso, TX. William Wise,previously CEO of El Paso Energy, will retain his position in thenew company. Ronald Kuehn, who has been CEO of Sonat, is now thechairman of the board for the combined company until Dec. 31, 2000.

The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) unanimouslyapproved an accounting order earlier this week, which outlined theprocedure by which AGL Resources could file for stranded costrecovery. The parent of the deregulating Atlanta Gas Light willcompletely exit the merchant function next month.

FERC earlier this week clarified that the “rate reductionmechanism” (RRM) in the capacity contract between Dynegy Marketingand Trade and El Paso Natural Gas is “not an unlawful practice orcontract” under the Natural Gas Act. Commissioner William Massey,however, issued a blistering attack against the RRM and the entireEl Paso-Dynegy transaction.

Producers and marketers say Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America(NGPL) conducted a capacity auction earlier this month in anillegal manner, and now are looking to FERC to overturn the resultsof the auction and to prevent the re-occurrence of the allegedviolations in the future.

Much like two Fridays earlier, the usual drop in gas demand thataccompanies business slowdowns over a weekend failed to have anegative effect on prices last Friday. Although it later fell morethan a nickel, an initially higher screen helped cash achieve gainsranging up to about a dime at nearly all points. Only San JuanBasin, the Southern California border and PG&E citygateregistered losses, and those were small at 3 cents or less.