Earlier

After six months of construction, the Thunder Creek Pipelinebecame operational earlier this month, Thunder Creek Gas Servicessaid. The 126-mile 450 MMcf/d trunkline system, which carries gasproduced from the Powder River Basin in Northeast Wyoming, begandelivering gas into the KN Interstate system on Sept.1.Construction of the line was completed last month. Thunder Creekalso has interconnects with the CIG system, Wyoming InterstateCo.’s proposed Medicine Bow Lateral and KN’s proposed Pathfinderline. The estimated cost of the Thunder Creek gathering trunkline,related compression and the processing plant is $100 million.Thunder Creek Gas Services is a joint venture between KN Energy andDevon Energy. Two other projects designed to transport gas from thebasin, the Fort Union Gathering project and the Northern Header GasGathering project, are still in construction. Fort Union GasGathering project, a 106-mile system, currently is being built by aconsortium of five companies. The Northern Header Gas Gatheringproject is a 256-mile system that would move up to 500 MMcf/d fromthe northeast end of the basin for CMS Oil & Gas and Pennaco.

Southwest Gas threw the latest stone in the battle surroundingits proposed merger with Oneok Inc. earlier this week, refusing togo along with a request from Carl Kunasek, the Arizona CorporationCommission (ACC) chairman, to allow rival suitor Southern Union(SU) to intervene in the ACC proceedings involving the merger.

The 16 gas suppliers vying for Georgia customers had theirmoment of truth earlier this month, as Atlanta Gas Light (AGL)determined their market share and presented the results to theGeorgia Public Service Commission (GPSC). As expected, GeorgiaNatural Gas Services, an AGL affiliate, and Scana Energy Marketinggained the most customers, receiving over 60% of the market betweenthem.

When the Natural Gas Choice and Competition Act was signed byGov. Tom Ridge earlier this week, the foundation was laid forPennsylvania’s gas customers to have gas supplier choice for theupcoming winter. The question now is will other northeastern statesfollow Pennsylvania’s lead.

Landowners and interstate pipelines actually agreed on somethingearlier this week — neither were particularly thrilled with someof the initiatives proposed by FERC for carving out a greater rolefor landowners in the certificate process. But the reasons fortheir dissatisfaction were completely disparate.

Consolidated Natural Gas Co. E&P subsidiary CNG ProducingCo. agreed to buy interests in Lopeno and two adjacent South Texasgas fields. Earlier in the year, CNG Producing bought about a 50%interest in the Lopeno field, and together with the most recentpurchase, CNG Producing will own nearly 100%. On a combined basis,the company will pay $125 million for the two transactions.

Mojave Pipeline reversed an earlier bulletin board posting (see Daily GPI, June 16), emphasizing that itwould “not” shut in part of its West Lateral Thursday and cause theshut-ins of “17Z”-labeled interconnects with Chevron, Mobil, Shell andTexaco. However, Mojave said, a maintenance shut-in of the Oxy 17Zinterconnect was to proceed as scheduled Thursday and today.

Altra announced earlier this week it has completed thepreviously announced merger of the Streamline and Quicktradeelectronic energy trading systems, achieving a major goal Altra setwhen it bought Quicktrade in January. Altra said the combinedpackage will increase Streamline user numbers 30% and boostliquidity.

The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) unanimously decidedearlier this week to allow customers to switch from Atlanta GasLight (AGL) after the previously-determined Aug. 11 deadline, thedate when market share is determined among the competing suppliers.Commissioner Robert Baker said the vote will help dispel the rumorof August 11 being a drop-dead date.