Ldcs

Natural gas supply can be adequate for the expected demand in the future from power generators as well as LDCs, as long as rigs remain in the ground and the industry pays attention to indicators, according to Bruce Henning, director of Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (EEA) at the Energy Bar Association’s 55th meeting in Washington, D.C. last week

Pipelines and LDCs are urging FERC to take a measured approachin its review of Order 497 regulations that are designed to deterabuses between interstate pipes and their marketing affiliates, butnatural gas producers believe it’s time to make some major changesto the rules.

Pipelines and LDCs have urged FERC to take an”if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it” approach to its Order 497regulations that are designed to keep interstate pipes fromfavoring their affiliates, but gas producers believe changes arelong overdue.

Major trade groups for interstate natural gas pipelines andlocal distributors last week rallied to defend their membersagainst allegations that painted them and other energy deliverysystems as ticking “time bombs.”

While Washington D.C.-based trade groups for gas pipelines andLDCs have had some defections recently, the association for majorgas producers anticipates a small rise in its membership for nextyear.

PG&E Energy Trading signed one-year gas management contracts with Roanoke Gas Co. and its affiliate Bluefield Gas Co. last week that the LDCs say could save them $750,000 in capacity release costs alone. Financial terms of the contracts were not disclosed. The deals are expected to begin Nov. 1.

Producers and distributors last week indicated they generallybacked the thrust of FERC’s proposed rule to expand the blanketconstruction and abandonment certificate authority for pipelinesunder the Commission’s Part 157 regulations, but they – like thepipelines – saw some major problem areas with it.

In the battle between marketers and LDCs to restructure the gasindustry, commercial customers are being overlooked, according toKathleen Magruder, vice president of rates and tariffs for EnronEnergy Services (EES). “I had a regulator. say to me, ‘Well, ‘I’venever heard a commercial customer say they really want somechoice.’ So the next meeting I brought in 15 commercial customers.He was real unhappy.