Long

Nation Fuel Gas Supply Corp. is holding an open season for19,100 Dth/d of long-term firm transportation capacity that hasbeen turned backed to its system. The open season will terminate onSept. 11.

The gas industry’s long and winding road from pipelineelectronic bulletin boards (EBBs) to the Internet is heading backto the Gas Industry Standards Board Executive Committee for furtherdebate. However, progress has been made as GISB has so far narrowedthe number of proposals for Internet transition from seven down totwo, with the GISB Executive Committee strongly in favor of one,known as Model 2 or CAMEL, the Consortium Advancing MutualElectronic Links. The Executive Committee (EC) previously voted outModel 2 and Model 1 to be sent to the board. Model 2 received 19votes from EC members, while Model 1 received only two votes. TheGISB board of directors decided rather than choose one or send bothproposals to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) itwould send them back to the EC in the hope one or a combination ofthe two could be decided upon.

Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmissionyesterday followed through on a long-standing promise to provideFERC with some new regulatory ideas in the area of negotiated termsand conditions of service. The transmission subsidiaries ofColumbia Energy filed a proposal to establish a new regulatorymodel called Standard/Customized services. Columbia said it’s the”next logical step in the evolution of pipeline regulation andnatural gas markets.”

FERC is expected to announce the long-awaited outcome of itssweeping FERC First review to staff members at various “townmeetings” within the Commission beginning this Wednesday, but it’sunclear if the results will be publicly disclosed this week.

Traders returned Tuesday from a long weekend to find a much morerobust May cash market than they had left behind Friday. Many hadbeen impressed by the strong recovery of the June Henry Hub futurescontract Friday after it briefly dipped under $2, a Texas marketersaid. “We were immediately up to Friday’s highs as trading begantoday.” Weather demand wasn’t much of a factor as cool butcomfortable temperatures reign in the Midwest and Northeast marketareas, he added, “but there were still plenty of buyers up there.”

The Clinton administration finally unveiled its long-awaitedrestructuring program for the electric industry yesterday in aseries of meetings with congressional leaders, stakeholders and themedia. The plan, which did not include specific legislativelanguage, represents a pragmatic position that its proponentsbelieve has the best chance of forging a compromise betweencompeting interests to arrive at comprehensive restructuringlegislation, if not in this session of Congress, then “very soon,”according to Energy Secretary Federico Pena.