Started

A little more than a year after NiSource started its pursuit of Columbia Energy Group, the merger is nearing completion. Seven out of nine states have completed the necessary regulatory actions, and the proposed union is on the docket for a vote at FERC’s next regular meeting, Wednesday, July 12.

A little more than a year after NiSource started its pursuit of Columbia Energy Group, the merger is nearing completion. Seven out of nine states have completed the necessary regulatory actions, and the proposed union is on the docket for a vote at FERC’s next regular meeting, Wednesday, July 12, (see Daily GPI, June 8, 1999).

Dynegy Inc. has started commercial operation at the CalcasieuGeneration Project, a 155 MW natural gas-fired power generationfacility near Lake Charles, LA. Construction of the simple-cyclepeaking facility took less than eight months, making it the firsttrue merchant plant in the state of Louisiana and the second powerplant developed by Dynegy under its $5 billion generation expansionprogram.

Florida Gas Transmission has started construction on its PhaseIV expansion project, which includes a new pipeline to Fort Myersfrom Tampa. The project, initiating in Hillsboro and Lee Counties,FL, will provide 197 MMcf/d of incremental firm transportationservice on an annual basis and will extend FGT’s 4,700-mileexisting transmission system by 139 miles.

Florida Gas Transmission has started construction on its PhaseIV expansion project, which includes a new pipeline to Fort Myersfrom Tampa. The project, initiating in Hillsboro and Lee Counties,FL, will provide 197 MMcf/d of incremental firm transportationservice on an annual basis and will extend FGT’s 4,700-mileexisting transmission system by 139 miles.

Despite notching new annual volume records for the fifth consecutive year since NGI started ranking gas marketers, the pace of volume growth among the top 20 North American gas and power marketers has shown some signs of decline.

Despite notching new annual volume records for the fifthconsecutive year since NGI started ranking gas marketers, the paceof volume growth in the gas and power marketing businesses hasshown some signs of decline.

After engaging in a Northeast LDC eating binge last year, EnergyEast Corp. started the digestion phase of its strategy yesterday byannouncing the completion of its Connecticut Energy purchase. Thetransaction gives Energy East control over Southern Connecticut GasCo., an LDC serving 160,000 customers. The original purchase offerwas made last April for $617 million. Energy East (formerly knownas NYSEG) still has a full plate, however, as its transactions withCTG Resources, CMP Energy and Berkshire Energy are still beingprocessed. Following the completion of all the acquisitions, EnergyEast will have more than 1.3 million electric customers and morethan 542,000 gas customers, excluding any added through CMP NaturalGas, the Maine gas distribution partnership of Energy East and CMP.With CTG and Connecticut Energy, Energy East becomes the largestgas distributor in the state with about 300,000 customers.

It shouldn’t have shocked anyone when the October aftermarketstarted out weak; after all, a number of sources had beenpredicting such a situation to NGI all week. The softening fromindex levels in swing deals done Thursday for today-only flow wasdivided somewhat on a geographic basis: declines of 15-20 cents ormore in the East were considerably greater than those in the West,which generally were less than a dime. California points evenmanaged about flat showings.