Southern

FERC yesterday approved an amended certificate for SouthernNatural Gas (Sonat) to build a controversial mainline extension tooffer competing transportation services to customers in northernAlabama and Georgia. The fate of the project, however, still hangsin the balance given that Interior Department’s Fish and WildlifeService (FWS) hasn’t issued Sonat a permit yet to build through aprotected public refuge.

Exxon Company U.S.A. will buy a coastal processing facility 25miles west of Santa Barbara from a Southern California Gas affiliate for an undisclosed amount, it was announced last week.The plant processes 60 MMcf/d of offshore California natural gasproduced by Exxon’s Platform Honda.

Exxon Company U.S.A. will buy a coastal processing facility 25miles west of Santa Barbara from a Southern California Gas affiliate for an undisclosed amount, it was announced last week.The plant processes 60 MMcf/d of offshore California natural gasproduced by Exxon’s Platform Honda.

Southern California Gas Co. has filed its latest two-yearcost-allocation rate proposal with California state regulators,proposing a massive $204 million rate cut, including transportationrate decreases for all customers with the largest targeted forlarge industrial and wholesale customers.

Hurricane Georges took aim at the Gulf of Mexico Friday afterpassing the southern tip of Florida, and producers and pipelineswere responding. The pace of platform evacuations and productionshut-ins accelerated rapidly following tentative starts in theMobile Bay area Thursday. Evacuation reports extended as far westas the West Cameron area off southwest Louisiana. As of late Fridayafternoon a hurricane watch was in effect from Morgan City, LA, toSt. Marks, FL.

Southern California Gas will hold a one-day auction Sept. 1 tosell its exclusive rights to buy 370 miles of large-diametertransmission pipeline and related facilities currently transporting1.1 Bcf/d of supplies from Rocky Mountain and Southwest supplysources. The winning bid(s) will be announced Sept. 16, SoCalGasofficials said this week. A previously announced June8-through-mid-July auction was canceled because of state regulatorydelays, they said. Both the auction and results will be accessiblethrough the large gas-only distribution utility’s on-line GasSelectservice and company website on the Internet(www.socalgas.com/3rdparty/kern).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission got it right, findingan access fee charged to interstate shippers by Southern CaliforniaGas was illegal-but then dropped the ball in failing to order$800,000 in refunds, the D.C. Court of Appeals said in a decisionhanded down May 22 (No. 97-1028).

The less-than-sensational first quarter earnings reported byPacific Enterprises, holding company of Southern California Gas,were reflective of the thinner margins that have so farcharacterized the transition to restructured energy markets fornatural gas and electricity. In brief, the regulated utility isproducing all of the earnings; the unregulated businesses are stillproducing only red ink.

Houston Industries Power Generation (HIPG) agreed to buySouthern California Edison’s (SCE) Ormond Beach Generating Stationfor $43 million. Ormond Beach has two gas-fired units totaling1,500 MW, and the deal includes land adjacent to SCE’s Coolwaterplant in the Mojave Desert, which Houston Industries bought inNovember.