Relinquish

FERC last week ordered El Paso Merchant Energy and El PasoMerchant Energy-Gas L.P. to stop stonewalling and turn overprotected materials to parties involved in a complaint case thatalleges the affiliates received preferential treatment when theyacquired 1.2 Bcf/d of California-bound firm capacity on El PasoNatural Gas.

FERC yesterday ordered El Paso Merchant Energy to stopstonewalling and turn over protected materials to parties involvedin a complaint case in which it’s alleged the affiliate receivedpreferential treatment when it acquired 1.2 Bcf/d of firm capacityon El Paso Natural Gas.

Williams Energy’s Kern River Gas Transmission announced an openseason last week to determine if customers on the system arewilling to relinquish enough capacity to meet the demand ofcompanies wishing to serve the Salt Lake City market. The openseason will run through March 3 and results will be announcedsometime in late March, a Williams spokesperson said.

State regulators shouldn’t force utilities to relinquish theirmerchant role in a competitive natural gas market, industry expertsagreed last week. Why bother? Given enough time, the market will dothat job for regulators, an energy supplier remarked.