Rights

Scana Energy Marketing could have the early lead in Georgia’sretail gas market. Its mass marketing campaign and generousincentives for residential customers to switch suppliers seem tohave caught many competitors by surprise.

Last week’s agreement by Semco Energy Gas Co. to a three-yeardeal with TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. for management of its gassupply gives TransCanada its largest asset management relationshipto date. Semco also will buy the majority of its gas supplies fromTransCanada for the three years of the agreement, which iseffective April 1, 1999.

FERC Chairman James Hoecker said this week he would prefer thatthe gas industry reserve any arguments opposing the Commission’sdaily auction proposal for written comments that are due Nov., 9th,and use the workshop to be held on Oct. 20th to focus on thedetails of how an auction could be put into practice.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a proposed consent orderrequiring Shell Oil subsidiaries Tejas Energy and Transok to divest171 miles of the 690 miles of natural gas gathering lines recentlyacquired from Coastal Corp. subsidiaries in Oklahoma and the TexasPanhandle.

Kerr-McGee Corp. last week joined a growing number of productioncompanies, including ARCO, Occidental Petroleum and Unocal, thatare restructuring or reducing work forces because of the depressedoil market. Kerr-McGee said it plans to layoff about 70 workers,reducing its Oklahoma City metropolitan area work force by 7% andits exploration and production company staff by a similar amount.

The Pipeline Customer Coalition (PCC) says it supports FERC’sproposed revisions to its complaint procedures that would fosterinformal resolution of commercial differences upfront. Theobjective is to speed up the complaint process at the Commission bycutting down on the number of formal complaints filed. Thecoalition believes this can be accomplished by the FERC mandatingthat regulated energy companies make available “carefullydelineated” pre-filing dispute resolution measures for theircustomers’ use.

The current financial stars in the pipeline firmament areColumbia Energy, El Paso Energy and Enron Corp., while distributorsto watch are AGL Resources, MarketSpan, Peoples Energy and UGICorp., according to Curt Launer, vice president of Donaldson,Lufkin &amp Jenrette. Prospects are good for the companies named,although a biannual report by the New York investment house showsthe overall interstate gas pipeline group “has not been doing verywell” so far in 1998, with stock prices significantlyunderperforming the Standard &amp Poor’s 500 Index.

Southern California has become the latest hot spot for gaspipeline competition. Following the successful $50,000 bid twoweeks ago for Southern California Gas’ option to purchase (in 2012)the California portion of the Kern River Pipeline, Williams wastedno time in drawing up plans for Kern River’s first major extensionproject since going into operation in 1992.

Capitol Hill lawmakers, federal and state regulators and anumber of power industry representatives last week indicated thatthe results of the FERC staff inquiry into the pricing turmoil inthe Midwest power market were a vindication of their originalsuspicions. Staff proved once and for all, they said, thatelectricity restructuring was not the culprit behind the pricespike in late June, and it found nothing that smacked of marketmanipulation.