Preferential

A recent capacity auction conducted by the Natural Gas PipelineCo. of America (NGPL) was “unreasonable and unduly preferential,”FERC said last week, but it refused to overturn the auction’sresults, as was requested by producers and marketers. It gave thepipeline the benefit of the doubt on the latter point, saying thatNGPL had “followed an arguable interpretation of its tariff,” whichhad been approved by the Commission.

A recent capacity auction conducted by the Natural Gas PipelineCo. of America (NGPL) was “unreasonable and unduly preferential,”FERC said last week, but it refused to overturn the auction’sresults, as was requested by producers and marketers. It gave thepipeline the benefit of the doubt on this score, saying that NGPLhad “followed an arguable interpretation of its tariff,” which hadbeen approved by the Commission.

Enron Americas LNG Co. has withdrawn its protest alleging that Southern LNG Inc. showed preferential treatment when it awarded the entire capacity of its facility on Elba Island in Georgia, which it is seeking to reactivate, to its marketing affiliate. Since filing the protest in August, the two companies “have negotiated a commercial resolution regarding the future use of the Elba Island Terminal.” Enron LNG said it now supports Southern LNG’s bid for a preliminary determination by Dec. 31 and final approval in the first quarter of 2000 to upgrade and reactivate the mothballed terminalling facility. (See Daily GPI, Aug. 19).

Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline (WBI), through its”surrogate” affiliate Frontier Gas Storage, has displayed a patternof preferential treatment by selling all of Frontier’s gas to itsmarketing affiliate, Prairielands Energy Marketing Inc., in anattempt to give the latter a competitive edge over non-affiliatedshippers, the pipeline’s customers charge.