Offers

In a rare move that eliminates huge legal costs, Kern River GasTransmission has submitted to FERC a negotiated settlementagreement on its rate design prior to the start of a general ratecase (RP99-274). The agreement has the approval of all of itsshippers. Kern’s general rate case was scheduled to begin thismonth.

In an effort to grow its nonregulated business sector, ColumbiaEnergy Group’s Columbia Propane Corp. recently announced a tenderoffer to acquire National Propane Partners for $80.4 million. Theoffer expires April 9. National Propane shareholders will vote inearly May.

California’s chief energy regulator, at a critical juncture in ayear-long study of the state natural gas industry’s marketconditions, says he is not sure he will support extensiveunbundling or divestiture on the gas side.

California’s chief energy regulator, at a critical juncture in ayear-long study of the state natural gas industry’s marketconditions, says he is not sure he will support extensiveunbundling or divestiture on the gas side.

After enumerating eight features any “win-win” upstream dealneeds to have, Exxon Exploration Co. President Jon L. Thompson toldattendees at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates executiveconference in Houston Tuesday that his company will be walking awayfrom “bad deals.

TransCanada PipeLines plans to sell to the public 15.6 millionshares (excluding a 2.4 million over-allotment option) of a newlimited partnership formed to acquire and operate its U.S. pipelineinterests. The public offering would represent 78.2% of the totalinterest in the new TC PipeLines LP, which will own a 30% stake inthe recently expanded Northern Border Pipeline.

Dynegy Inc. is the only gas-related company so far to publiclypropose an alternative to FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking(NOPR) that seeks to institute industry-wide auctioning ofshort-term capacity in return for lifting the price cap on thatcapacity. “There’s nothing else that’s been made public,” saidPeter G. Esposito, vice president and regulatory counsel.

In this uncertain world Pittsburgh-based Weatherwise USA isoffering to eliminate one weather-related stress factor – that ofskyrocketing gas heating and cooling bills. The WeatherwiseWeatherProof Bills program claims to be the first to offer afixed-price gas service that eliminates weather- and gasprice-related uncertainty for individual consumers.

In another much-anticipated decision, FERC yesterday proposed anexpedited complaint process that would apply uniformly to all ofthe energy sectors that it regulates – natural gas pipelines,electric utilities, oil pipelines and hydroelectric concerns. Thecomplaint proposal, which was outlined in a notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR), represented an “amalgam” of the best proposalsof the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the PipelineCustomer Coalition and the Electric Industry Dispute ResolutionWorking Group, said Chairman James Hoecker.