Fire

Coastal Gas Gathering and Processing experienced a fire Thursdayat its Dragon Trail (CO) Plant that caused one injury and limitedreceipts into Northwest, Questar, CIG and Public Service Co. ofColorado. Dragon Trail throughput was reduced temporarily to zeroFriday but was being restored by that afternoon, a spokesman said.Full output was expected to be reached by Friday night or Saturday,he said.

While most regulated companies have called a cease-fire at FERCduring the holidays, El Paso Natural Gas and its principaldetractors — Amoco Production and Burlington Resources Oil &Gas — are hard at work. For starters, the pipeline has asked theCommission to give it until February to submit a proposal forrevising its controversial capacity-allocation procedures.

While El Paso’s new agreement covering 1.2 Bcf/d of its firmtransportation capacity is likely to draw intense public andregulatory scrutiny, it may not be able to overshadow the growingconcern over its capacity allocation procedures. Despite someconcerns that revisiting the issue could undermine the recentlyapproved major settlement, more existing shippers have come forwardclaiming huge losses due to El Paso’s overbooked pipeline.

While El Paso’s new agreement covering 1.2 Bcf/d of its firmtransportation capacity is likely to draw intense public andregulatory scrutiny, it may not be able to overshadow the growingconcern over its capacity allocation procedures. Despite someconcerns that revisiting the issue could undermine the recentlyapproved major settlement, more existing shippers have come forwardclaiming huge losses due to El Paso’s overbooked pipeline.

Independent oil and natural gas producers are up in arms over aremark by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson that current oil pricesare at “dangerously high levels.” Richardson cited his concern lastweek and said the Clinton administration stood ready to take actionif prices continued to rise, although he declined to specify whattype of action.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s proposal to revise the existingcash-out provisions of its tariff has come under heavy attack fromlarge shippers on its system.

Several producers who blasted El Paso Natural Gas last week in aSection 5 complaint at FERC got an earful right back from thepipeline yesterday. El Paso wasted no time in filing an answer, andin an interview with NGI, A.W. “Al” Clark, El Paso’s vice presidentof marketing and operations control, said this is just another casein which producers are attempting to hide behind FERC because theyare afraid of competition.

Amoco Energy Trading, Amoco Producing and Burlington Resourcestold FERC last week in a Section 5 complaint that they are losingmillions of dollars because of El Paso Natural Gas’ poor firmdelivery point allocation procedures at Topock, AZ.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Y2K contingency plan to havetransportation nominations for the first seven days of the new yearsubmitted in advance by Dec. 28 has caused concern among some ofits shippers.