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A coalition of pipeline customers has called on the FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission to place greater focus on reformingthe existing ratemaking process, which it contends indulgesinterstate gas pipelines at the expense of their customers. Thepipelines wasted little time in delivering a counterpunch lastMonday.

By virtue of a new agreement with TransCanada PipeLines Ltd.,Sears Canada could become the place where Canadians shop fornatural gas. Sears Canada and TransCanada, through its wholly ownedsubsidiary TransCanada Energy Ltd., plan to offer gas toresidential consumers in Ottawa. The program will start out as apilot, and the agreement between the companies is for six years.Sears will be the first national Canadian general retailer to offergas, the companies said.

Duke Energy Trading and Marketing and Dynegy Marketing and Tradewere the winning bidders in the first auction of Gulf Coast gastransportation services in the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS)Gulf of Mexico royalty in-kind pilot program. The two companieswill be transporting a total of 198 MMcf/d of royalty gasproduction to the General Services Administration (GSA) at marketpoints onshore Louisiana from December through March 2000.

Duke Energy Trading and Marketing and Dynegy Marketing and Tradewere the winning bidders in the first auction of Gulf Coast gastransportation services in the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS)Gulf royalty in-kind pilot program. The two companies will betransporting a total of 198 MMcf/d of royalty gas production to theGeneral Services Administration (GSA) onshore Louisiana fromDecember through March 2000.

TriState Pipeline L.L.C. last week asked FERC to place the U.S. portion of its Chicago-to-Canada project on indefinite hold, which only added more fuel to industry speculation that the project’s future is tenuous at best.

FERC has been asked to place an immediate hold on Southern LNGInc.’s applications to reactivate and upgrade its mothballedliquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and send-out facility on ElbaIsland in Georgia, pending the outcome of a probe being requestedinto the company’s open-season procedures.

FERC has been asked to place an immediate hold on Southern LNGInc.’s applications to reactivate and upgrade its mothballedliquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and send-out facility on ElbaIsland in Georgia, pending the outcome of a probe into thecompany’s open-season procedures.

Rocky Mountain gas producers heard encouraging news last week onthe role they could play in helping the industry achieve a 30 Tcfmarket by 2010. Several speakers at the Colorado Oil & GasAssociation’s annual conference last week in Denver delivered themessage that it’s largely up to the Rockies to make that kind ofmarket growth a reality.

For the first time in July Pacific Gas & Electric entered aweekend without having a high-inventory OFO in place. One that hadbeen declared for Friday (see Daily GPI, July 23) was not extended.However, Southern California Gas did implement an OFO-likeOvernominations Day for Saturday.