North

Don’t worry. Be happy. Or at least don’t fret over electricpower reliability on New Year’s Eve 1999. The initial word is infrom the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), andthings don’t look as bad as some would have thought.

Mitchell Energy & Development agreed to settle the lastremaining 25 North Texas groundwater lawsuits brought against acompany subsidiary. Plaintiffs alleged in the suits that Mitchell’soil and gas operations in Wise County, TX, affected theirgroundwater.

New Mexico is the latest state to be labeled unfit forresidential energy marketing by Enron Corp., North America’slargest wholesale energy marketing firm. As in other states, suchas California, where Enron came to a similar conclusion, thecompany plans to continue participating in commercial andindustrial energy marketing. But the regulatory structure will makeit difficult, if not impossible, to compete profitably against theincumbent gas supplier, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM),Enron said.

Amoco announced a gas discovery in the Cotton Valley Reef Trendnorth of Houston. The company said it expects to bring its No. 1 J.W. Vanderbeek on production this month. Amoco holds a strongposition in the Cotton Valley Reef Trend, with drilling rights inmore than 100,000 acres, primarily in Leon County. Amoco has acontract with Koch Midstream Services to use their pipelines in thearea to gather the gas for treatment and delivery to marketsthroughout the Texas Gulf Coast region.

In a move to renew PG&E Corp.’s focus entirely on NorthAmerican markets, the utility holding company sold its natural gastransmission pipeline, related facilities and energy tradingoperations in Queensland, Australia to Duke Energy International,LLP.

Bay State Gas subsidiary Northern Utilities announced plans forgas distribution service in communities along the coastal corridornorth of Portland, ME. Communities to be served include Bath,Brunswick, Topsham, Freeport, Yarmouth, and Falmouth, as well asthe towns of Sanford, and Kittery in York County. The area iscontiguous to Northern’s existing service territory, and gas ratesin expansion areas will mirror those of Northern’s existing Mainecustomers, the company said.

KN Energy is holding an open season for expansion of its systemfrom production fields in Wyoming to the Rockport Hub in northcentral Colorado.

The current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tariffon gas imports into Mexico is holding up pipeline development fromthe U.S. to northern Mexico, said consultant George Baker of Baker& Associates. “The only people that have to pay this tariff arethe private industry who would contract with a U.S. gas supplier.If they buy [gas] from Pemex [Petroleos Mexicanos], however, it’s arolled-in price and they don’t pay it.” The tariff, originally 10%in 1991, is rolled back 1% a year and currently stands at 5%.That’s still too high for the private sector to feel confident itcan make money shipping gas to Mexico, Baker told attendees Tuesdayat the conference portion of Houston Energy Expo ’98, formerlyknown as Gas Fair. “That’s an important delay, and the origin of itis largely Pemex’s wanting to say, ‘we’re not ready for competitionyet.’ Some people say, ‘have you ever heard of a state monopolythat has acknowledged that it’s ready for competition yet.’ Mostpeople say no.”

NGPL restored full nominations Friday at six wells on the NorthCuster gathering line in Custer County, OK. The wells had been cutto 1 MMbtu/d Tuesday after a line leak was discovered.