Opened

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week opened a new StrategicCenter for Natural Gas that will oversee a full range of theagency’s gas-related activities.

Arguments opened this week in a $7.5 billion lawsuit brought byTransAmerican Natural Gas Corp. and its founder, Jack Stanley,accusing Coastal Corp. and its founder Oscar Wyatt Jr., El PasoNatural Gas, and William Wise, CEO of parent El Paso Energy ofvarious illegal acts aimed at financially underminingTransAmerican.

The week opened with swing price increases Monday that werealmost uniformly in the vicinity of a nickel but were more like adime or so for the Northeast, Appalachia, PG&E citygate andintra-Alberta, but only a couple of pennies for Kern River andNorthwest in the Rockies.

For the second trading session in a row Monday the Aprilcontract opened at 2.81, but in contrast to the price fallexperienced last Friday, prices spiked higher at the open yesterdayand quickly tested life-of-contract highs. However, severalattempts to punch through the $2.88 level failed and that left themarket with an 8.6 cent advance and a $2.86 closing price.

Southern Company opened its new energy trading floor in Atlantayesterday, establishing the electronic nerve center of thecompany’s growing body of North American assets.

Joining a short list of other states, New Jersey opened upentirely to gas supplier choice earlier last week. At a specialmeeting on Jan. 10, the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved ofeach of the state’s four main gas utilities’ unbundling plans. Thelegislation calling for this deregulation was enacted lastFebruary.

Joining a short list of other states, New Jersey opened upentirely to gas supplier choice earlier this week. At a specialmeeting on Jan. 10, the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved ofeach of the state’s four main gas utilities’ unbundling plans. Thelegislation calling for this deregulation was enacted lastFebruary.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has opened a second front in itsfight to stop, before it starts, a revenue hemorrhage seen on thehorizon as a result of new competition in natural gastransportation.

Columbia Gas opened a data room this week to provide informationto anyone interested in buying its Derrick’s Creek storage field inKanawha County, WV. The field has about 6.2 Bcf of total storagespace, 20 gas storage wells and 13 miles of related pipelinefacilities. In 1996, Columbia announced plans to sell the field,which is not part of its core transportation and storageoperations. Interested parties should contact Columbia at (304)357-2282. Access to the data room will be available until Dec. 3.