Industry

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline officials began constructionof the 203-mile mainline that will extend from outside theU.S.-Canada border near Baileyville, ME, to Westbrook, ME.Maritimes and its Canadian affiliate will transport gas from theSable Offshore Energy Project off the coast of Nova Scotia tomarkets in Atlantic Canada and the Northeast U.S. Constructionbegins with the clearing and grading of the right-of-way along thedesignated route followed thereafter by ditching and pipeinstallation. Earlier this year, Maritimes successfully completedthe horizontal directional drill crossings of the Androscoggin andSt. Croix Rivers.

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.

Many industry analysts have been steadily raising their gasprice forecasts because of the year-long drilling slump and itspotential impact on gas deliverability, but St. Petersburg,FL-based Raymond James &amp Associates went out on a limb last weekpredicting sharp price spikes above $10/Mcf at the Henry Hub nextwinter and an average of $3/Mcf at the hub next year.

Enron Corp. has eliminated the last vestiges of its one-timehigh-profile venture into California’s residential electricitymarket by pulling out of its deal with the resort city of PalmSprings. Enron was the energy service provider for a citygovernment-established aggregation business, which had about 2,000mostly residential customers lured away from the local monopolyprovider, Southern California Edison.

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.

Many industry analysts have been steadily raising their gasprice forecasts because of the year-long drilling slump and itspotential impact on gas deliverability next winter, but St.Petersburg, FL-based Raymond James & Associates went out on alimb this week predicting sharp price spikes above $10/Mcf at theHenry Hub this winter and an average of $3/Mcf at the hub nextyear.

Shell Energy Services LLC is offering Georgia retail customers aweatherproof bill for their gas purchases. The bill sets flatmonthly charges for consumers’ natural gas bills, which Shellguarantees for a full 12 months. The program is different fromother “budget” billing plans, Shell said, because there is noyear-end adjustment or “true-up,” no matter how cold it gets in thewinter. For a limited time, consumers may sign up for the ShellEnergy WeatherProof(SM) Bill by calling 1-877-56-SHELL or byvisiting the Shell Energy Web site at www.shellenergy.com. Afterthey provide qualifying information, customers are told exactly howmuch their monthly natural gas bill will be for the next 12 months.The calculation is based on a computer program analysis ofmulti-decade weather patterns for their respective regions ofGeorgia. The analysis is combined with the 12-month historicalnatural gas usage at the consumer’s residence and the then-currentguaranteed rate per therm-now 39 cents for Shell Energy naturalgas.

The New York State Public Service Commission (NYPSC) approvedthe merger of Consolidated Edison of New York and Orange andRockland Utilities. NYPSC Chairman Maureen O. Helmer said Consumerswill benefit from the strength of the companies’ combinedmanagement and from merger-related savings over the next fiveyears.

A partnership between Sempra Energy International and PublicService Enterprise Group (PSEG) won approval from the board ofdirectors for Chilquinta S.A. to buy Chilquinta Energia, for $830million, Chilquinta announced Tuesday. Chilquinta Energia isChile’s third-largest electricity supplier, serving 405,000customers. Along with Chilean electricity supply, the Sempra – PSEGpartnership would acquire Energas, a Chilean natural gasdistribution company. Energas began service in May of 1998 andplans to reach 50,000 customers by 2003. Both Sempra and PSEG saidthe deal will progress their Latin America growth strategies andlook forward to entering into the Chilean electric market, whichhas grown 8% each year since 1991, compared to 1%-2% in the U.S.The deal is contingent on the buyers’ review and approval ofschedules for the definitive stock purchase agreement. Both Sempraand PSEG expect the purchase to be accretive in 1999. The $830million would net 90% of Chilquinta Energia’s stock for thepartnership. Upon final acquisition, Sempra and PSEG will be ableto make a tender offer to acquire the remaining 10 percent ofChilquinta Energia shares from other shareholders.