Scheduled

Almost four months after its scheduled date, Maine Natural Gas(MNG), a joint venture between the CMP Group and Energy East, begandelivery of natural gas yesterday to Calpine Corp.’s new 540 MWelectric generating facility located in Westbrook, ME. The companyalso began supplying the University of Southern Maine (USM) andparts of Gorham, ME.

Questar canceled Thursday the shut-in of its Clay Basin storagefacility that had been scheduled for Oct. 24-25. The maintenancework will be rescheduled next spring.

Due to scheduled maintenance, one compressor unit will beunavailable at Koch Gateway’s Koran (LA) Station for 30 daysstarting Oct. 2, reducing station capacity by 22 MMcf/d. Worklasting about 30 days began Tuesday on a unit at the Montpelier(LA) Station, cutting capacity on the 30-inch Kosciusko Line fromMontpelier by 50 MMcf/d.

On behalf of the Natural Gas Supply Association, Conoco GeneralManager Mike Johnson is scheduled today to recommend that thegovernment maintain a hands-off approach to the natural gas marketdespite concerns about a potential crisis from Senate Energy andNatural Resources Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski, Sen. CharlesE. Schumer (D-NY) and other lawmakers. Several congressmen andsenators have voiced concern recently about high prices, low storagelevels and rising demand (see Daily GPI, July 11).

Northern Natural Gas has two firm capacity open seasonsupcoming. One, scheduled July 26-27, is for 20,000 MMBtu/d tocertain delivery points in Zone ABC. The space will be awarded infour separate 10,000 MMBtu/d packages: one each for the months ofAugust, September and October 2000 and a fourth for the entirethree-month period. The other open season, set for July 31-Aug. 3,is for 15,000 MMBtu/d to certain delivery points in Zone EF for theOctober 2000 through April 2001 period. This volume is subject tocertain constraints. See the HotTap bulletin board or call FrankSemin at (952) 887-1785 for more information.

To complement Southern Energy’s new power generation plantscheduled for construction in Zeeland, MI, Semco Energy Inc.announced plans yesterday to build a natural gas line to serve thefacility. Southern Energy plans to build a 830-MW plant to supplythe growing demand for electricity in the upper Midwest (see NGIMay 12). Semco’s gas line will connect the plant with ANRPipeline’s interstate mainline system.

Transwestern said its Crawford Lateral will be down for plannedmaintenance Tuesday and Wednesday. No flows will be scheduled atthe 500267 meter, affecting about 50 MMcf/d, the pipeline said.

With 1.6 billion barrels of oil reserves and an unknown quantityof deep-water natural gas reserves scheduled for production in 2003in the Gulf of Mexico, BP Amoco is getting a little nervous aboutlining up some means of transportation to shore.

Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) of the Senate Energy and NaturalResources Committee announced last week the panel will begin a”section-by-section” markup of legislation May 17, to be followedby a second session on May 24 and possibly other sessions ifnecessary.