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After three months operating as MarketSpan Corp., the companyformed by the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas parent KeySpan Energyand Long Island Lighting and Power, has decided to change its nameto KeySpan Energy. CEO Robert B. Catell said the decision was madebecause of KeySpan’s superior name recognition in its serviceterritory. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchangeunder the symbol KSE.

Although the public’s overall awareness of energy deregulationhas inched up over the past three years, a majority of residentialand business customers surveyed say they still know next to nothingabout the issue and its potential effect on them, according to theresults of two major surveys issued this week.

After three months operating as MarketSpan Corp., the companyformed by the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas parent KeySpan Energyand Long Island Lighting and Power, has decided to change its nameto KeySpan Energy. CEO Robert B. Catell said the decision was madebecause of KeySpan’s superior name recognition in its serviceterritory. The company will trade on the New York Stock Exchangeunder the symbol KSE.

Canadian approvals are expected to fall into place within thenext three months after the U.S. leg of the Alliance PipelineProject earned its environmental seal from FERC last week. “Thisputs us firmly on track,” Alliance spokesman Jay Godfrey said.FERC’s approval of the final environmental impact statement (FEIS)firmed up a schedule that – following a one-year delay due to aprolonged fight before Canada’s National Energy Board – calls forconstruction of the C$3.7-billion (US$2.6-billion), 1.3 Bcf/dpipeline to start next spring. That will be in time for completionand a start on deliveries in the fall of 2000, Godfrey said.

Union Pacific Fuels and three Wichita, KS-based affiliates ofKoch Industries exchanged certain gas and gas liquids assets inEast Texas and Southern Louisiana. The Koch companies will receivea portion of Union Pacific’s interest in the Panola Pipeline, whichruns from Carthage, TX, to Mont Belvieu, TX. In addition, the Kochcompanies will receive Union Pacific’s interest in the Mont BelvieuI fractionator as well as the Patterson and Calumet gas plants inSouthern Louisiana.

NorAm Energy Services (NES), a subsidiary of Houston IndustriesTrading and Transportation Group, signed a three-year assetmanagement contract with Owensboro, KY-based Western Kentucky GasCo. The contract, effective July 1, entails about 60 Bcf/year offirm transportation, 8 Bcf of storage capacity and 26 Bcf/year ofgas supply, as well as citygate delivery asset management services.

FERC made three small but significant changes to its pipelinerate of return policy this week, winning the praise of theInterstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), whichrepresents the pipelines. INGAA President Jerald V. Halvorsen saidthe Commission’s action “should help pipelines compete in theincreasingly competitive financial markets for the capital to buildprojects that are necessary to meet projections of a 30 Tcf naturalgas economy by 2010.”

NorAm Energy Services (NES) won a large three-year assetmanagement contract with Owensboro, KY-based Western Kentucky GasCo., effective July 1. The deal includes gas supply,transportation, storage, and city gate delivery asset managementservices. The Kentucky gas distributor, a division of Dallas basedAtmos Energy, serves 180,000 customers.

California regulators have decided to review the potential fordistributed power generation as part of a series of three”roundtable workshops” on offshoots of the state’s electricindustry restructuring. The first roundtable will be held Aug. 3,1-4:30 p.m. at the California Public Utilities Commission’s SanFrancisco headquarters. Utility, trade association and consumerrepresentatives will participate.