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A major pipeline group last week said there was “much to like”in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would, among otherthings, expand the blanket construction and abandonment authorityfor pipelines under FERC’s Part 157 regulations, but it also had”several major concerns.”

While there’s much commercial and industrial customers likeabout gas unbundling, they still have complaints, according to arecent study. And while marketers are perceived to be moresensitive to customers’ wants and needs than LDCs, utilities arestill favored for gas supply by some.

As expected, there still is nearly complete disagreement amongOklahoma gatherers and producers over the fairness of current ratesand service treatment. Responses to a recent Oklahoma CorporationCommission (OCC) questionnaire reveal that nearly half of producerrespondents felt similarly situated producers on the same gatheringsystem received higher or lower prices than they received. Also,79% said this was unduly discriminatory.

Major producers, who usually have chemical and other businessesto shield them somewhat from weak commodity prices, obviously wereleft unprotected during the third quarter. They’re suffering underlow oil and gas prices right along side the independents.

The perception that there is no need to “rush” natural gasunbundling and customer choice has prevailed in Californiafollowing actions by the state legislature and energy regulators.That allows the major investor-owned gas utilities to prepare formore competition and gain more experience in wide-rangingsettlements that they negotiated with their major suppliers,shippers and marketers.

For the first time in several trading days, there was nodivergence between Eastern and Western market directions Wednesday.It was up, up and away all around as nearly all points registeredgains of around a dime or higher.

There was no calm before the storm on Thursday as the futuresmarket experienced another day of volatile, choppy trading astraders turned to televisions in trading rooms across the countryfor the direction and strike probabilities of Hurricane Georges.The October contract bounced back and forth throughout the tradingsession as the market digested the imminence of supply shut ins.That prompted the spot month to move 4.8 cents higher yesterday,settling at $2.179.

Deregulation is creating more opportunities for distributedgeneration than there have been since the 1920s, according toconsultant Frost &amp Sullivan. Although regulatory, technical,economic and environmental hurdles remain, deregulation hasprompted utilities and other energy providers to start offeringdistributed generation as a value-added service to retaincustomers. Also, some industrial and commercial customers arebuying generators to gain independence from electric providers.

There is an unfair advantage in using the name of a 140-year-oldutility when marketing gas in Georgia, the state public servicecommission ruled Friday, ordering Atlanta Gas Light Services (AGLS)to market gas in the state under a different brand until AtlantaGas Light Co. exits the merchant function.