Southeast

El Paso Corp. pipeline affiliates, Southern Natural Gas Co. and Florida Gas Transmission (FGT), said Friday they have begun open seasons for transportation capacity on planned and related expansions that are designed to meet the growing demand in southeastern gas markets by 2007.

El Paso Corp. pipeline affiliates, Southern Natural Gas Co. and Florida Gas Transmission (FGT), said Friday they have begun open seasons for transportation capacity on planned and related expansions that are designed to meet the growing demand in southeastern gas markets by 2007.

The Enterprise-operated Toca I Processing Plant work has been completed and the southeast Louisiana plant is back online, Sonat reported Sunday. As a result, the hydrocarbon dew point limitation and the Type 5 OFO implemented Aug. 1 in conjunction with the Toca outage (see Daily GPI, Aug. 3) were lifted immediately.

Columbia, SC-based SCANA Corp. said Friday it plans to merge its interstate natural gas pipeline subsidiary and intrastate pipeline subsidiary into a single interstate pipeline over the next six months, citing FERC’s stiffer affiliate-abuse standards and an increasing customer interest in managing their purchasing portfolios as the reasons.

Columbia, SC-based SCANA Corp. said Friday it plans to merge its interstate natural gas pipeline subsidiary and intrastate pipeline subsidiary into a single interstate pipeline over the next six months, citing FERC’s stiffer affiliate-abuse standards and an increasing customer interest in managing their purchasing portfolios as the reasons.

Sonat reported being notified by plant operator Enterprise Operating Partners LLC that the Toca II processing plant in southeast Louisiana for 10 days of maintenance beginning Monday. Sonat said it would post new PTR (plant thermal reduction) percentages shortly. The pipeline said it expects a richer gas stream, mainly on its south system, as a result of the outage, but does not anticipate any gas quality problems at this time.

Sonat has experienced another unscheduled outage of unknown duration at Olga Compressor Station in southeast Louisiana. It required a reduction in interruptible receipt (A-1 and/or IT) capacity on the 26-inch Main Pass Area line effective with Tuesday’s intra-day 1 cycle. The latest outage is the fourth in a series over the past couple of months (see Daily GPI, April 1, March 17 and Feb. 13).

Only two days after announcing completion of repairs at Olga Compressor Station in southeast Louisiana (see Daily GPI, March 30), Sonat said Wednesday it had experienced a new unscheduled outage at Olga that again requires a reduction in interruptible receipt (A-1 and/or IT) capacity on the 26-inch Main Pass Area line until further notice.

Chattanooga Gas Co. (CGC), which serves 60,000 customers in southeast Tennessee, has asked the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA) to adjust its rates beginning in March to cover rising costs of providing natural gas to its customers. CGC last increased its rates nine years ago. If the rate hike is approved, a typical residential customer would pay about $3.20 more per month. The total rate increase requested is approximately $4.5 million. However, a reduction in gas costs of over $1 million dollars will be put into effect in the spring of 2004; this change will reduce the amounts charged for gas on customers’ bills. CGC’s new proposed rate plan will provide relief to low-income elderly customers and align customer rates to more accurately reflect CGC’s costs of maintaining its natural gas pipeline system. It will also enable the company to replace 100 miles of aging pipe, consistent with CGC’s goal of continually modernizing the gas infrastructure that has served customers for almost a century. Lindsey cited other pressures that have lead to CGC’s decision to request a rate adjustment, including growing employee benefits costs and bad debt, or uncollectible customer bills. CGC also asked the TRA to approve a cost tracking mechanism for additional expenditures to permit the replacement of a 100-mile segment of its over 1400-mile pipeline system. Some of the pipeline is almost 100 years old and needs to be replaced. Construction is expected to begin during 2004.