Republished

Although often seen as effective vehicles for achievingcompetition, pilot programs also are being used as a “delayingtactic” by some natural gas and electric utilities that aren’tbullish on the idea of bringing customer choice to their markets, amarketing official charged last week.

As a result of KN Energy’s acquisition of MidCon Corp. in lateJanuary, MC2 said it plans to turn its focus to retail natural gasand electric markets in western states in which its new parent doesa lot of trading.

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.

Six energy companies agreed to form Tri-States NGL Pipeline tobuild a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline from Alabama andMississippi to Louisiana fractionators. The line will link threegas processing plants under construction to new and expandedfractionators on the Mississippi River.

Canada’s National Energy Board approved six applications foreight licenses to export some 1.2 Tcf of gas for periods of two toten years:

Prices ranged from flat to down a few cents Wednesday, with mostof the softness concentrated in the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent andChicago citygates. Columbia-Appalachia joined those points indeclines of mostly 3-6 cents, but CNG and Northeast citygates weredown only a penny or two. The declines tended to be attributed to”tracking the Nymex,” as a marketer said.

Rep. William M. “Mac” Thornberry (R-TX) introduced legislationWednesday aimed at “completely overhauling the current system” usedby the federal government to collect royalties on oil and naturalgas production.

One-call pipeline safety legislation moved much closer tobecoming law this week as the Senate voted to add it to omnibustransportation legislation and representatives Richard Hugh Baker(R-LA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced a nearly identicalone-call bill in the House of Representatives. The Senate alreadyhas passed one-call as a stand alone bill (S. 1115) but includingit in the larger transportation package increases its chances ofbecoming law.

MCNIC Pipeline & Processing, a subsidiary of MCN EnergyGroup, and American Central Gas Companies, have formed apartnership to own and operate a gas gathering system in theCarthage field of East Texas. MCNIC Pipeline & Processing has a40% interest, and American Central holds 60%.