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The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) has delayed the startdate for retail gas unbundling in the state from Oct. 1, 1999 toJune 1, 2001. Retail unbundling affects gas utilities serving morethan 25,000 customers. The commission order delaying unbundlingalso allows groups wanting to propose competitive purchase programsat earlier dates to submit their proposals for commissionconsideration.

The leadership of the Gas Industry Standards Board’s (GISB) topdecision-making committee has been in the hands of the pipelinesand producers for a number of years, but the gavel has been passedto service companies and distributors in 1999. This changing of theguard has left some feeling uneasy as they wonder whether a radicalchange in direction is in store for the standards-setting group inthe year ahead.

Change in the electric industry will mirror what took place inthe gas industry following deregulation and the introduction ofcompetition, particularly with regard to trading, Enron PresidentJeffrey K. Skilling told attendees at Ernst &amp Young LLP’s ninthannual Energy Conference last week in Houston.

Change in the electric industry will mirror what took place inthe gas industry following deregulation and the introduction ofcompetition, particularly with regard to trading, Enron PresidentJeffrey K. Skilling told attendees at Ernst & Young LLP’s ninthannual Energy Conference in Houston Tuesday.

Pipelines now have an extra year to get interactive websites andelectronic data interchange systems in place, FERC said in a finalrule on the matter yesterday. The rule extends the deadline to June1, 2000. The order requires pipelines to provide a communicationssystem consisting of interactive Internet websites and EDI.

Canadian approvals are expected to fall into place within thenext three months after the U.S. leg of the Alliance PipelineProject earned its environmental seal from FERC last week. “Thisputs us firmly on track,” Alliance spokesman Jay Godfrey said.FERC’s approval of the final environmental impact statement (FEIS)firmed up a schedule that – following a one-year delay due to aprolonged fight before Canada’s National Energy Board – calls forconstruction of the C$3.7-billion (US$2.6-billion), 1.3 Bcf/dpipeline to start next spring. That will be in time for completionand a start on deliveries in the fall of 2000, Godfrey said.

Before its massive 700 MMcf/d expansion/extension project iseven put in place, Northern Border already is planning to fileanother expansion/extension that would provide shippers with 545MMcf/d of transportation capacity into Indiana markets.

Few areas were getting below 32 degrees (F) Thursday, but cashprices seemed to be frozen in place everywhere. The market was muchlike the landscape around Houston, one source said: flat in alldirections.