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Hagler Bailly Inc. and Cap Gemini SA and subsidiary Cap GeminiAmerica Inc. formed a joint venture to deliver informationtechnology consulting services and solutions to electric, gas andwater utilities and service providers in the United States andCanada.

Pacific Gas & Electric extended a Stage 1 Operational FlowOrder that began Thursday (see Daily GPI, June 11) through today.

NGPL expected to complete maintenance between Stations 167 and169 on the Amarillo Mainline sometime Tuesday and was tentativelyscheduling nominations through the area for today’s gas day.

Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline (WBI), through its”surrogate” affiliate Frontier Gas Storage, has displayed a patternof preferential treatment by selling all of Frontier’s gas to itsmarketing affiliate, Prairielands Energy Marketing Inc., in anattempt to give the latter a competitive edge over non-affiliatedshippers, the pipeline’s customers charge.

Follow-through buying took hold of Nymex trading early, and ledto new session highs before the closing bell last Friday as Julygained 9.9 cents to settle at $2.17. July gapped higher on the openafter coming into the day with solid momentum following Thursday’smodest gains in both the regular and ACCESS trading session. Julyopened at 2.115 Friday, already 4.4 cents above Thursday’s settle.A warming trend for both the weekend and extending into the 6-10day forecast in the South, coupled with some technical momentumwere universally cited as reasons for the strength.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has signed precedent agreements for over1 Bcf/d in new deliveries through its Eastern Express Project 2000in New England and its Express 500 Project from the Gulf of Mexico,according to John Somerhalder, pipeline president.

After 30% of its gas customers saved $7 million (11%) on theirgas bills through a customer choice pilot in Toledo, OH, last year,Columbia Gas of Ohio decided the results were too good to withholdfrom the rest of its customer base. The Ohio utility filed anapplication with the Ohio Public Utility Commission late Tuesday toallow the rest of its 1.3 million customers to choose alternativesuppliers.

Laclede Gas Co. and Williams agreed to provide additional gasservice into the St. Louis area through a project that will expandthe Williams Gas Pipelines Central service area eastward fromKansas City to the St. Louis area. The project involves conversionof an existing 200-mile Williams petroleum pipeline to gas service.Williams also will install new compression, pipeline and deliveryfacilities. The project is fully subscribed, and firm service isexpected to begin in the fourth quarter.

For the third day in a row the April Futures contract tested butwas unable to break through the $2.185 resistance level, stoppingshort at $2.172 Wednesday. April opened higher in sympathy withHenry Hub cash market prices, which eked out a couple-cent gain onthe day, but it was limited to a 4-cent trading range with arelatively light 31,462 contracts changing hands.