Fire

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.

No injuries or fire resulted from a rupture Sunday evening onone of El Paso’s two 24-inch pipes (Line 1201) in the San JuanTriangle south of the pipeline’s San Juan River Mainline Station.The ruptured line was isolated and the other one remained inservice. Monday’s throughput impact was estimated at 50-75 MMcf/d(about 3% of Triangle capacity); no scheduling increases were beingallowed for Cycles 3 and 4 of the gas day. El Paso expected tocomplete repairs Monday night and that Triangle capacity would beback to normal today.

The screen may have decided to take a breather Monday afterflexing its muscles so impressively last week, but the heated cashmarket showed no signs of settling down. Western quotes stagedtheir by-now-familiar retaking of ground lost over the weekend, andthis time they actually shared in the general bull market by risingin greater amounts than they had fallen on the previous Friday.Eastern points, on the other hand, continued to build on the upwardtrend they had seen all of last week.

Much of the U.S. bore some resemblance to a lit oven Thursday,and the Nymex screen was soaring like a space shuttle takeoff fromCape Canaveral. The two events combined to give strong support toeastern cash prices, which rose between a nickel and a dime atalmost every point. Gas demand was especially intense at theNortheast and Chicago citygates; both were up about a dime. TranscoZone 6-NYC deliveries topped all points with a high of $2.70.

Scana Energy Marketing and Exxon Corp. are urging FERC to delayor deny an extension of the experimental waivers and limitedjurisdiction blanket certificate that it approved for Atlanta GasLight (AGL) a year ago to promote retail gas unbundling in Georgia.

Scana Energy Marketing and Exxon Corp. are urging FERC to bedeliberative as it weighs Atlanta Gas Light’s (AGL) bid for anextension of the waivers and limited jurisdiction blanketcertificate that were approved on a limited basis a year ago toencourage retail gas unbundling in Georgia.

Existing shippers on Transcontinental Gas Pipeline haveexpressed widespread opposition to the pipeline’s request to rollin the costs associated with its SouthCoast expansion project inGeorgia and Alabama.

The shorter, and some believe unrealistic, response timesimposed by FERC in its final rule to expedite resolution ofindustry disputes will place an inordinate burden on interstatepipelines and other regulated companies that are likely to betargets of customer complaints, pipelines and power utilitiescontend. In fact, some believe the accelerated response deadlinesunfairly weight the process in favor of the complaining parties.Even natural gas producers – who helped spearhead the drive forthe faster complaint process – expressed some concerns, albeit morelimited, about the compressed deadlines.

The shorter response times imposed by FERC in its final rule toexpedite resolution of industry disputes will place an inordinateburden on interstate pipelines and other regulated companies thatare likely to be targets of customer complaints, pipelines andpower utilities contend. Even natural gas producers – the biggestproponents of a faster complaint process – expressed some concernabout the compressed deadlines.