Respect

Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) fears that corrective action ordered by FERC with respect to its auction practices, if construed improperly, could boomerang and potentially “nullify” the pipeline’s negotiated-rate authority and “aggravate” its decontracting problems.

FERC staff has recommended that the full Commission approve anaccord under which El Paso Natural Gas has agreed to pay SouthernCalifornia Edison $32 million and make certain rate concessions topreserve its 1996 capacity-turnback settlement.

El Paso Natural Gas has agreed to pay Southern California Edison$32 million and make other concessions to prevent its hard-fought1996 rate settlement from collapsing like a house of cards. Thedeal ends four years of litigation by Edison, which tried to derailthe settlement from the very start.

One of the “biggest issues” facing the natural gas industry inthe upcoming year with respect to Y2K will be the readiness of “keyproviders and dependent players,” namely the electricity andtelecommunications industries, said pipeline and LDC officials lastweek.

Two pipeline projects that were to provide takeaway capacityfrom the Chicago hub to the southern Wisconsin market have beenrebuffed by LDC customers there, causing the sponsors to cancel oneand place the other on indefinite hold.

Bulls have had very little if anything positive to talk aboutlately with respect to gas prices at the New York MercantileExchange. Mild June temps, a healthy storage level, and amplesupply have weighed on the market since the current downtrend beganon April 9th. So it comes as no surprise that upon the release ofthe less-than-expected 86 Bcf AGA storage injection, bulls sawtheir first opportunity in a while to push the market higher. Thefirst thrust was registered in Wednesday night’s ACCESS session.Then, after opening higher yesterday, the contract traded in a neat5-cent trading range settling at $1.970, up 4 cents for the day.