Seek

Customers looking for services tailored to their specific needsare driving pipelines to seek lighter-handed regulation, includingthe ability to negotiate and deliver those services on thespot-without lengthy FERC proceedings,according to InterstateNatural Gas Assoc. (INGAA) chairman John Riordan.

American Electric Power Co. Inc. (AEP) and Central and SouthWest Corp. (CSW) last week sought FERC approval of the merger oftheir operations into one of the largest electric utility companiesin the nation.

The May Nymex contract continued its assault into higherterritory last week, as the spot month made its first ever tripabove the $2.70 mark. In fact, May set its new all-time high of$2.725 Thursday morning before strong profit taking ahead of thelong holiday weekend drove May down to a Friday settle of $2.567,up an overall 10.1 cents for the week.

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.

A group of natural gas producers and marketers has asked FERC toextend until July 9th the deadline for producer payments of anestimated $500 million in customer refunds. The refunds, which aredue March 9th, are owed to customers who purchased gas produced inKansas during the 1980s at costs that, because they included thestate’s ad valorem tax, exceeded the level allowed under theNatural Gas Policy Act (NGPA).