Light

Indiana Gas Co. and Citizens Gas, Light & Coke said theyplan to appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court an appellate courtdecision issued last week ordering the break-up of their jointventure energy marketing company, ProLiance Energy, which sellsmore than 200 Bcf of gas and 3 million MWh of power per year.

Patrick J. Maher, chairman of Washington Gas Light, will retireeffective March 1. He will begin his leave pending retirement onDec. 1. Maher joined the company in 1974 as vice president andchief financial officer, and subsequently held the positions ofexecutive vice president of finance and administration, president,and chief executive officer. He has been a member of the board ofdirectors since 1988 and became chairman in 1992.

FERC last week gave conditional approval to a major expansionand upgrade of Jackson Prairie Storage that would add 3.2 Bcf ofworking gas capacity and would boost the firm deliverability rateof the Pacific Northwest storage facility by 300 MMcf/d, both ofwhich would heighten its peak-shaving capabilities.

FERC has given the go-ahead to a major project that wouldincrease the deliverability of Jackson Prairie Storage by 300MMcf/d and would more than double its best-efforts withdrawal rate,both of which will boost the peak-shaving capabilities of thestorage provider.

FERC last week gave the green light for ANR Pipeline to moveahead with construction of its Wisconsin Loop Expansion Project,which would provide about 116 MMcf/d of additional capacity toLDCs, marketers and power generators in the state. This puts ANRout in front of competing projects that also intend to vie for themarket.

FERC last week gave the green light for ANR Pipeline to moveahead with construction of its Wisconsin Loop Expansion Project,which would provide about 116 MMcf/d of additional capacity toLDCs, marketers and power generators in the state. This puts ANRout in front of competing projects that also intend to vie for themarket.

Florida Power &amp Light Co. announced plans last week toaccelerate by one year an expansion of its power generating system.The expansion will take place in phases with the first phase beingcompleted in 2001. In total, the expansion will add 2,500 MW of newgas-fired generation capacity at three power plant locations overthe next eight years with the majority coming on line by 2003.

Western Resources and Kansas City Power & Light filed anamended application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionto approve the Western Resources-KCPL merger and the formation ofWestar Energy, a new electric company.

Aquila Gas Pipeline might be taken off the auction block inlight of depressed gas liquids prices and the fear a sale pricewon’t do justice to the company’s value. Indeed, the company’ssecond quarter results were something less than stellar. Net incomewas $1.4 million, down from $7 million in the second quarter of1997. This despite the fact gas throughput and marketed volumesaveraged a record 1.4 Bcf/d, compared to 1.2 Bcf/d in the secondquarter of last year. However, total system throughput was 446MMcf/d, compared to 534 MMcf/d in the second quarter of 1997. Anincrease in gas volumes marketed off system to 954 MMcf/d from 642MMcf/d in the second quarter of 1997 reflects the continuedincreased emphasis on marketing activities. Liquids productiondecreased to 25,000 barrels/d from 38,000 barrels/d 2Q 1997. Lowliquids prices were the reason for the decline.