Rights

Ruling that the case was not ripe for review yet, the D.C.Circuit Court of Appeals has denied challenges to FERC’s policystatement and subsequent orders that gave interstate gas pipelinespermission to enter into negotiated rates with their customers.

Temperatures that were 15.2% and 2.1% warmer than normal in thefirst and second quarters of the year, respectively, prompted theAmerican Gas Association to significantly scale back its gas demandforecast for the year. The association is projecting a 0.3% decline(0.1 quadrillion Btus -1 quad is roughly equivalent to 1 Tcf) ingas demand in 1998 to 22.6 quads in contrast to its Decemberforecast of 3.1% gas demand growth this year.

Dynegy CEO Chuck Watson attributed his company’s improved secondquarter performance to stronger margins in the wholesale gas andelectric businesses despite weaker margins in the company’s liquidsbusiness.

Of the 36,600 MW of new electric generating capacity underconstruction or planned in the U.S., more than 93% will be fueledby natural gas, according to a new analysis by Boulder, CO-basedResource Data International (RDI). And of the projects identified,about 90% do not yet have gas supply contracts.

Northern Border Partners LP reported a 15% increase in earningsper unit. Earnings improvement from the first half of 1997 wasattributed mainly to return on equity from investment in theChicago Project, an $839 million expansion and extension of theNorthern Border Pipeline system.

Texaco and Dynegy formed Versado Gas Processors LLC, a jointventure of both companies’ processing facilities in southeast NewMexico and associated gas gathering assets in New Mexico and WestTexas. The new company will operate facilities with a combinedprocessing capacity of 341 MMcf/d of gas. Texaco will own 37% whileDynegy will own 63%. Dynegy will operate the plants under contractwith Versado.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) announced it isexpanding its NIPSCO Choice program to an additional 32,000residential customers in the South Bend area this summer and willintroduce the program to Fort Wayne-area residents early next year.In addition, the number of commercial and small industrialcustomers eligible to choose alternate suppliers will increase to10,000.

Very few points were left trading above $2 as flat to lowernumbers dominated the cash market Wednesday. Citygates in theNortheast and Midwest (just barely) and the Appalachian pipes(again, just barely) constituted most of the $2-plus survivors,although some Louisiana points such as Henry Hub, Sonat and TranscoStation 65 recorded $2.00-even quotes at the high end of theirranges. Although quotes straddled the $2 level, Houston ShipChannel was the rare Gulf Coast point still averaging above $2.

A plea by two Enron affiliates for a limited waiver of thecapacity-release regulations and the “shipper must have title”policy is being met, at least initially, with opposition from thenatural gas industry.