Necessary

Foothills Pipeline CEO Robert L. Pierce said last week it won’tbe long before Alaskan natural gas is absolutely necessary to meetU.S. demand. And he remains convinced that the long-proposed AlaskaNatural Gas Transportation System (ANGTS) from Prudhoe Bay alongthe Alaska Highway and eventually to Alberta is the best way tomake it happen.

Foothills Pipeline CEO Robert L. Pierce said yesterday it won’tbe long before Alaskan natural gas is absolutely necessary to meetU.S. demand. And he remains convinced that the long-proposed AlaskaNatural Gas Transportation System (ANGTS) from Prudhoe Bay alongthe Alaska Highway and eventually to Alberta is the best way tomake it happen.

Both El Paso and Florida Gas Transmission lifted low-linepackOFOs Friday (see Daily GPI, Oct. 22).

Due to rising market-area demand following the weekend, Florida GasTransmission found it necessary to reinstate Monday an Overage AlertDay notice that it had lifted Friday after a three-day run (see DailyGPI, Oct. 4). The low-linepack OFOcarries 8% tolerance for negative daily imbalances and applies to thesystem east of Station 12 (Santa Rosa County, FL). FGT also continuedto extend maintenance at Sabine Pass Plant/Johnson’s Bayou insouthwestern Louisiana, which was originally scheduled to end May 17,1999, but said late last week it was increasing allowable volumesthrough the facility by another 10 MMcf/d, raising its total capacityto 110 MMcf/d.

An unplanned outage occurred Wednesday at Northern Border’sCompressor Station No. 4. No capacity cuts were necessary, aspokesman said, and the station was functioning normally againThursday.

In a major clarification of policy, FERC decided it wasn’tnecessary to address the merits of each objection before approvingcontested pipeline rate settlements. Instead, it said settlementscould be ratified based on the reasonableness of the overallpackage. The policy adjustment was reflected in a rehearing orderthat approved a rate settlement between Trailblazer Pipeline andits customers as being “reasonable as a package” for consentingparties, yet at the same time severed contesting parties, AmocoProduction and Amoco Energy. The action cleared the way forconsenting parties to maintain the benefits of their settlementbargain while giving the Amoco affiliates a chance to litigate the”complex factual issues” that they raised [RP97-408-006].

CMS Gas Transmission and Storage Co. said the Fort Union GasGathering partnership has secured all of the rights-of-waynecessary to construct its planned 106-mile natural gas gatheringsystem in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. CMS is the managingmember in the partnership, which also includes Enron Capital &ampTrade Resources Corp., Western Gas Resources and CIG Resources Co.

CMS Gas Transmission and Storage Co. said the Fort Union GasGathering partnership has secured all of the rights-of-waynecessary to construct its planned 106-mile natural gas gatheringsystem in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. CMS is the managingmember in the partnership, which also includes Enron Capital &Trade Resources Corp., Western Gas Resources and CIG Resources Co.

Citing continuing reduction of capacity by unseasonably hightemperatures, PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest said it wouldagain be necessary to limit volumes today to 2,450 MMcf/d atKingsgate and to 1,870 MMcf/d at Station 14 (the last one upstreamof Malin) in order to return the system to optimum performance.