Five

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has asked FERC to declare five lateralsin Texas as non-jurisdictional gathering and allow it to abandonand sell them to affiliate El Paso Field Services. The WestMagnolia, Chesterville, Bay City, Hungerford, and Village MillsLateral Systems fit the description of gathering, Tennessee said,adding that they currently are little used. The pipeline said it isno longer necessary for it to own the gathering lines since it nolonger sells bundled gas services. Detaching them from theTennessee system will “improve Tennessee’s ability to streamlineits mainline transmission operations.” Also the systems would bebetter able to compete with other unregulated gathering services ifthey are not tied to a jurisdictional pipeline.

The White House has given the green-light to the renomination ofCommissioner Curt Hebert Jr. for a full five-year term at theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission. “It’s my understanding thatthey’ve signed off on my nomination,” Hebert told NGI.SenateMajority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) sent a letter to the White Housein January seeking his renomination. The Senate EnergyCommitteeis expected to schedule a hearing after Congress returns fromrecess in mid-April, at which time it will begin to schedule ahearing.

For the second time in five months, the National Energy Boardhas served notice that competition has arrived to stay in theCanadian natural gas pipeline community.

The White House has given the green-light to the renomination ofCommissioner Curt Hebert Jr. for a full five-year term at theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Located less than five miles from downtown Los Angeles, theindustrial city of Vernon sits as an attractive trophy for one ofthe two proposed natural gas interstate pipelines. Thebusiness-focused local government is finishing construction of anew municipal gas distribution system that will compete withSouthern California Gas’ existing network. By next year, there willbe duplicative gas distribution systems operating.

Conoco and R&ampB Falcon Corp.’s Deepwater Pathfinderultra-deep-water drillship began a five-year work program in theGulf of Mexico. The ship, which is the first new vessel capable ofdrilling in 10,000 feet of water, will fulfill a $400 milliondrilling program for Conoco. The ship is expected to drill up tofour wells in its first year of operation, with the firstexploratory well being drilled at Garden Banks Block 783. Conocohas interests in 295 deep-water leases.

Marking the start of a five-year, $400 million Gulf of Mexico(GOM) exploration and production (E&ampP) assault, Conoco announcedthe exchange of interest in several deep-water blocks with Exxonand the debut of the Deepwater Pathfinder, a drillship capable ofreaching 10,000-foot depths. In the exchange, Conoco acquired 50%of 29 Exxon-owned blocks and Exxon acquired 50% of 30 Conoco-ownedblocks. The undeveloped acreage is in Green Canyon, Garden Banks,Walker Ridge and Keathley Canyon. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed. With this addition, Conoco holds interest in 295 blocksin the GOM, amounting to 1.2 million net acres.

Enterprise Products Partners LP of Houston subsidiary EnterpriseProducts Operating LP and five other energy companies have agreedon the ownership and operating terms of Tri-States NGL PipelineLLC.

Spirit Energy 76, the Lower 48 E&P unit of Unocal, plans toform the Venture 76 Alliance with five U.S. deep-water engineeringand service companies. Each alliance member will bring specificexpertise to the development of Unocal’s deep-water prospects inthe Gulf of Mexico. As opposed to strictly project-focused teams,the alliance will be directly involved in such pre-drillingactivities as field development scenario planning and screeningconcepts for handling deep-water production.