Services

Start-up costs and rapid Georgia customer acquisitions by itsSouthStar Energy Services partnership with Dynegy and AGLResources, cost Piedmont Natural Gas about $0.06/share during itsthird quarter, which ended July 31, the company reported this week.It experienced a net loss of $8.2 million (-$0.26/share) during thequarter, compared with a net loss of $6.3 million (1$0.20/share)during the same period a year earlier. As of Oct. 1, SouthStar willbe serving more than 450,000 new gas customers in Georgia. Theearnings per share impact of this venture for the first nine monthsof the year was -$0.10/share. Piedmont also noted that weather inits territory was 57% of the thirty-year normal heating degreedays. The company’s margin (revenues less cost of gas) was $44.4million compared with $45.5 million for the comparable year-agoperiod. For the nine-month period, basic earnings per share were$2.17, compared with $2.32 for the year-ago period, and margin was$279.8 million compared with $282.6 million for the prior yearperiod.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP will provide pipelinetransportation services for Aux Sable Liquid Products LP in theChicago area for liquids from Alliance Pipeline. Aux Sable isconstructing natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction and fractionationfacilities in Channahon, IL, about two miles east of KinderMorgan’s Morris, IL, liquids pipeline, storage and truck loadingfacility. Aux Sable’s facilities will initially process up to 1.6Bcf/d from Alliance and remove from the gas stream up to 40,000barrels of ethane, 19,000 barrels of propane, 8,000 barrels ofbutane (both normal butane and isobutane) and 3,000 barrels ofnatural gasoline. The facilities are targeted for completion byOct. 1, 2000.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP will provide pipelinetransportation services for Aux Sable Liquid Products LP in theChicago area for liquids from Alliance Pipeline. Aux Sable isconstructing natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction and fractionationfacilities in Channahon, IL, about two miles east of KinderMorgan’s Morris, IL, liquids pipeline, storage and truck loadingfacility. Aux Sable’s facilities will initially process up to 1.6Bcf/d from Alliance and remove from the gas stream up to 40,000barrels of ethane, 19,000 barrels of propane, 8,000 barrels ofbutane (both normal butane and isobutane) and 3,000 barrels ofnatural gasoline. The facilities are targeted for completion byOct. 1, 2000.

In an attempt to better support record-breaking power demand inthe Midwest, OG&E Electric Services (OG&E), an OGE Corp.subsidiary, said yesterday it plans to reactivate two powergenerators at its Mustang Power Plant. The utility is alsoconsidering other enhancement projects, with a goal to add 1,000 MWto its power supply system.

Georgia Natural Gas Services (GNGS) has equaled or even may haveovertaken Scana as Georgia’s leading marketer in terms of pipelinecapacity share, a GNGS executive said on Monday. With 30% of thepipeline capacity, GNGS is in line to be assigned another 120,000customers when the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC)determines random assignment tomorrow.

Thunder Creek Gas Services LLC, a joint venture of KN Energy andDevon Energy, has completed construction on a major new gatheringtrunkline designed to meet the expanding production in Wyoming’sPowder River Basin, which is being touted as the “most active”coal-bed methane play in the nation.

Thunder Creek Gas Services LLC, a joint venture of KN Energy andDevon Energy, has completed construction on a major, new gatheringtrunkline designed to meet the expanding production in Wyoming’sPowder River Basin, which is being touted as the “most active”coal-bed methane play in the nation.

An outage of the TransCanada Midstream Caribou Gas Plant thatwas scheduled Aug. 3-5 has been canceled, according to a WEI FieldServices posting on the Westcoast bulletin board.

Yankee Gas Services Co. inaugurated its new customer and billingservice this week, completing a process begun in collaboration withIBM two years ago. Yankee said the system will enhance customerservice, improve efficiency and is Y2K ready. The company would notrelease the cost of the new system.