Regulatory

The Coastal Corp. said Herbert W. Cole was elected vicepresident, accounting policy and operational compliance, of CoastalOil &amp Gas. Cole will be responsible for regulatory accounting,contract compliance and special projects for Coastal’s explorationand production (E&ampP) business. Cole joined Coastal in 1984 andhas served as assistant controller, budgeting and financialaccounting of Coastal Oil &amp Gas since 1995.

The Coastal Corp. said Herbert W. Cole was elected vicepresident, accounting policy and operational compliance, of CoastalOil & Gas. Cole will be responsible for regulatory accounting,contract compliance and special projects for Coastal’s explorationand production (E&P) business. Cole joined Coastal in 1984 andhas served as assistant controller, budgeting and financialaccounting of Coastal Oil & Gas since 1995.

Candidates to head up three main divisions of the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission being created in the on-going FERC Firstrestructuring should have their applications in to the Commissionby Sept. 24, according to a government job notice being circulatednationwide. A salary between $106,412 and $125,900 comes with thedirectors’ positions for the Office of Markets, Tariffs and Rates,the Office of Strategy and Organization Management, and the Officeof Administrative Litigation.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has conditionallyapproved a new interruptible park and loan service (PLS) to starttoday on Williams Gas Pipelines Central. The service – allowingcustomers to park or request a loan of gas at each of Williams’pools – was designed to give those customers greater flexibility ina market that has evolved from a monthly to a daily business. FERCapproved the service subject to refund and certain conditions.

Burned so badly that it subsequently got out of the gas andelectric marketing business, LG&E Energy nevertheless has urgedthe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not to interfere with theinfant electric market by imposing price caps. The marketer, whichhad been among the largest in the business, said the price run-upin June to the neighborhood of $7,000 per MWh for gas deliveredinto Cinergy was part of the “growing pains” of an immaturecommodities market.

Niagara Mohawk Power’s new holding company structure, which isexpected to receive regulatory approval in the first quarter of1999, will be called Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. William E. Davis,currently Niagara Mohawk Power chairman and CEO, will becomechairman and CEO of Niagara Mohawk Holdings. Niagara MohawkHoldings will succeed Niagara Mohawk Power as the sole entity inwhich common stock is held.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order lateFriday authorizing the California ISO on an interim basis to”reject bids in excess of whatever price levels it believes areappropriate for Regulation, Spinning Reserve, Non-Spinning Reserveand Replacement Reserve. The price levels could be based on costs,market or any factor the ISO determines will attract sufficientbids into the markets.”

IPL Energy and MCN Energy took the last major regulatory step inadvancing their 1 Bcf/d Vector Pipeline project this week by filingan application with Canada’s National Energy Board forauthorization to construct the 16-mile Ontario portion of the342-mile line. An application for the larger U.S. portion was filedwith FERC in December.

As of last Friday, 35 days away from the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission’s August recess and counting….there wasstill no official sign of its promised plan to cure the gas marketof its ills. But rumors abounded that the alleged “gas options”paper has been circulated to pipelines and producers and isundergoing a variety of alterations. There also was one report thatthe plan might not, after all, see daylight until after the recess.