Texas

Hoping the second time is the charm, Duke subsidiary TexasEastern Transmission announced Wednesday an open season for 300,000Dth/d of firm capacity on its proposed Spectrum Pipeline project.The open season will last from May 7 to June 4.

Effective May 1 until further notice, Tennessee will not acceptreceipt nominations at 20 meters on the Donna Line in South Texasor at 10 meters on the Kinder-Natchitoches (KN) Line in westernLouisiana as it prepares both lines to make them “piggable.” TheDonna and KN outages are scheduled to last until June 9 and June 1respectively. Delivery nominations will be allowed at theProvencal, Pitkin, Grant and J.R. Franks #1 meters on the KN Line.

Effective May 1 until further notice, Tennessee will not acceptreceipt nominations at 20 meters on the Donna Line in South Texasor at 10 meters on the Kinder-Natchitoches (KN) Line in westernLouisiana as it prepares both lines to make them “piggable.” TheDonna and KN outages are scheduled to last until June 9 and June 1respectively. Delivery nominations will be allowed at theProvencal, Pitkin, Grant and J.R. Franks #1 meters on the KN Line.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has asked FERC to declare five lateralsin Texas as non-jurisdictional gathering and allow it to abandonand sell them to affiliate El Paso Field Services. The WestMagnolia, Chesterville, Bay City, Hungerford, and Village MillsLateral Systems fit the description of gathering, Tennessee said,adding that they currently are little used. The pipeline said it isno longer necessary for it to own the gathering lines since it nolonger sells bundled gas services. Detaching them from theTennessee system will “improve Tennessee’s ability to streamlineits mainline transmission operations.” Also the systems would bebetter able to compete with other unregulated gathering services ifthey are not tied to a jurisdictional pipeline.

Avista Corp.’s Internet specialty billing and informationservices affiliate, Avista Advantage, and Texas-based ReliantEnergy have made a product distribution agreement.

Huntsman Corp., a Texas-based chemical company with $5 billionin revenues, selected Reliant Energy to supply gas to 10manufacturing facilities for $250 million. For competitive reasons,Reliant did not disclose the length of the contract or how much gaswill be supplied. It did say the contract has already gone intoservice.

Companion bills have been introduced in the Texas legislature togive small producers a break on gas and oil severance taxes inlight of foundering commodity prices. If enacted, legislation wouldtrigger a temporary suspension of severance taxes on productionfrom certain wells. Relief would be triggered if the three-monthaverage price for gas hits $1.89/Mcf (NYMEX) or $15/barrel (NYMEX)for oil.. When the price trigger is reached, the severance taxwould be suspended until the three-month average rises above thetrigger price. Severance tax relief would apply to oil productionfrom leases with wells averaging 15 barrels/d or less and to gasproduction from leases with wells averaging 90 Mcf/d or less. Ifpassed by the legislature, the measure would take effectimmediately and last until Aug. 31 or until $45 million in taxrelief has been granted, whichever comes first.

Samson Investment Co. of Tulsa, OK, completed its acquisitionfrom Nuevo Energy Co. of gas properties in East Texas. The totalpurchase price was $192 million. In addition to existingproduction, the properties contain more than 135 drillinglocations. The closing follows Samson Resources’ December closings,which included the acquisition of properties in six states fromDuer Wagner & Co. for $41 million and the acquisition ofcertain properties in the Homeglen-Rimbey and Westerose areas ofAlberta, Canada from Chevron Canada Resources for $9 million bySamson Canada Ltd.

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