Transmission

Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) has sought FERC authorization tobuild a major expansion/extension of its mainline to providenatural gas to meet the growing fuel needs of power utilities inthe state. If approved by the Commission, the project would makegas available to customers in the southwestern part of the statefor the first time.

TransCanada PipeLines subsidiary Nova Gas Transmission and twogroups of Canadian producers are on their way to a whole newcompetitive pricing structure aimed at “[taking] on the realcompetition, which are the U.S. basins.”

Portland Natural Gas Transmission System has become the secondmajor import pipeline project being delayed well into the winterfrom expected Nov. 1 start up. The pipeline said the 152 MMcf/d ofCanadian gas scheduled to flow to New England markets this fallprobably will not enter the pipe until sometime in January at theearliest.

Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) announced plans to expand itsMain Pass system in the Gulf of Mexico and lease the new expansioncapacity to Dauphin Island Gathering Partners (DIGP). The projectwill provide Tetco customers with access new supply sources andwould give DIGP additional capacity it needs to serve itscustomers, said Tetco President Bobby Evans.

Mississippi River Transmission (MRT) may have jumped the gun abit when it proposed to hold auctions as part of a new method ofawarding capacity to shippers on its pipeline system. But thecompany said it shouldn’t be punished for coming up with the ideaprior to the release of FERC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking(NOPR), in which short-term capacity auctions are a major issue.

Columbia Gulf Transmission began construction of a new pipelineto serve three Entergy Louisiana generating plants. Columbia Gulfwill deliver up to 100,000 Dth/d to the plants west of New Orleansalong the Mississippi River. Service is to begin in December.

Columbia Gulf Transmission began construction of a new pipelineto serve three Entergy Louisiana generating plants. Columbia Gulfwill deliver up to 100,000 Dth/d to the plants west of New Orleansalong the Mississippi River. Service is to begin in December.

Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) has made big strides towardbecoming a more competitive pipeline system in eastern markets. Thecompany agreed last week to pay three producers $496 million tosettle all of its remaining gas purchase contracts. Shippers willbear about $396 million of the costs, which is about $100 millionless than a payment cap set in 1993 as part of a restructuringsettlement.

Coming on the heels of a 315,000 Dth/d expansion of its mainlinesystem, Columbia Gulf Transmission announced Monday plans for twoseparate projects that would expand capacity by an additional 1.26Bcf/d. The projects, when combined with the Mainline ’99 expansion,would give Columbia Gulf shippers the capability for the firsttime to ship their Gulf of Mexico supplies directly to growingmarkets in the East, Northeast and Midwest, the pipeline said.