Serve

Duke Energy Trading and Marketing LLC has signed a contract to receive load following and load balancing services from Houston-based Falcon Gas Storage Co. Inc. for the 245 MW Encogen Power Plant located near Abilene, TX. Duke is the fuel manager for the plant, which will be served by Falcon’s Hill-Lake gas storage facility in Eastland County, TX.

Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. executives fired back at criticism that they did not serve customers well in last winter’s heating season, charging that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s review of ONG’s gas purchasing practices was incomplete and did not comply with the commission’s rules. Hearings this week are looking into charges that ONG was “imprudent” in buying winter gas supplies, causing customers to be overcharged.

In a $334 million tax-free stock deal that will triple its gas reserves and double its daily production, Denver-based Westport Resources Corp. announced it will buy Belco Oil & Gas, a peer company similar in structure with mirror assets in the Rocky Mountains, Permian Basin, Gulf Coast region and the Midcontinent.

More than 1 Bcf/d of additional transportation capacity on El Paso Natural Gas was available to serve the gas-starved California market last year, but it went unused, claimed a witness for Southern California Edison during a FERC hearing yesterday exploring price-manipulation charges against the pipeline and its merchant power affiliates.

Pipeline construction season has officially begun as two natural gas pipeline companies formally announced on Tuesday their new proposed projects for the Southeastern region’s gas needs. As Southern Natural Gas Co. unveiled its intentions to expand its Sonat system for the third time in the last year to supply incremental demand in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) launched a month-long open season to determine market interest in a new natural gas supply and transportation option called the Alabama-Georgia Energy System.

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) is proposing an expansion and extension of its existing system in northeastern Illinois to serve a planned new electric power plant, which will be constructed to meet a spring, 2003 in-service date. An open season started April 13 and will close at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, April 27. Natural proposes to expand the capacity of its Volo lateral (starting at Compressor Station 113), North Chicago, and Moraine Lateral by 75,000 Dth/d with the addition of compression. Also, a new eleven-mile, 20-inch lateral with a design capacity of 75,000 Dth/d would be built east from the Moraine Lateral to the site of a planned 550 MW electric power plant in the city of Waukegan, IL. Shippers must return an executed precedent agreement for a minimum of 16 years. Natural has proposed a negotiated rate including a fixed reservation charge of$4.5626 per Dth of contract maximum daily quantity, a maximum commodity rate for an Iowa-Illinois receipt to a Market zone delivery, which is currently $0.0021 per Dth in the peak period and $0.0005 during the off-peak period, plus a tariff fuel rate for an Iowa-Illinois to Market Zone delivery (currently 1.81%). For further information contact David E. Oros at (630) 691-3196.

In response to the “urgent” need for additional gas supplies toserve California’s electric generation markets this summer, KernRiver Gas Transmission has announced an emergency open season for135,000 Dth/d firm transportation service expected to be availableby July 1.

The battle for a new pipeline to serve Long Island, NY, heatedup this week as two companies announced significant market supportfor both of their projects. Tennessee Gas Pipeline announced thatits Connecticut-Long Island (CT-LI) Lateral Project attractedrequests for 1.6 Bcf/d of firm transportation capacity, while DukeEnergy Gas Transmission said its Islander East pipeline drew 1.2Bcf/d in shipper requests.

Although still not under construction Texas-based Western HubProperties’ Lodi Underground Storage Project announced Thursday ithas a deal with power plant developer/operator Calpine Corp., ofSan Jose, CA to provide storage services for up to 4 Bcf of naturalgas used to fuel some of Calpine’s growing list of Californiagenerating plants.