Tuesday

CMS Corp.’s marketing division, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (MST), completed an agreement Tuesday to purchase a total of 9.3 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the North West Shelf LNG project in Australia for delivery to the CMS Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The announcement marks the second major deal CMS has struck to take advantage of its purchase of Eastern Panhandle Pipeline and Trunkline Gas Co. from Duke Energy last year.

A new bi-partisan bill was introduced Tuesday to address climatechange issues using “American ingenuity in the marketplace todevelop new technology that can be exported and deployed around theworld.” Chief sponsor, Chairman Frank H. Murkowski of the SenateEnergy Committee, said the Energy and Climate Policy Act of 1999would chart a different course than the Kyoto Protocol. “Our billrepresents a long-term, technology-based, alternative to Kyoto.Even if the U.S. succeeded in limiting its own emissions, “we areunlikely to compel China to submit to mandated emissions limits.But they want to buy our technology, so let’s play our stronghand.”

The schedule for an outage of KN Energy’s Pony Express Line, whichbegan Tuesday (see Daily GPI, April 26),has been revised to last through May 27, according to the Williamsbulletin board. Williams is not allowing nominations at the KN-Glavininterconnect (Franklin County, KS) during the outage.

KN has scheduled an outage on its Pony Express line forTuesday’s gas day, according to Williams Gas Pipeline Central.Williams will not accept nominations at the KN-Glavin interconnectin Franklin County, KS, for that period.

After slipping 2.5 cents Tuesday, the May natural gas futurescontract climbed back up to just below stubborn support at $2.19yesterday in tenuous trading ahead of the release of the AmericanGas Association (AGA) storage report. May finished the session up 3cents to $2.174.

Avista Power said Tuesday it purchased a 20-acre site inLordsburg, NM from TNP Technologies and plans to put a $70 millionpower plant into service on the acreage by early 2000. The terms ofthe sale were not disclosed. The land contains four oldergenerators, which were in the process of being updated. All permitsand licenses will transfer to Avista Power and the transaction isexpected to close within 60 days.

The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) shuffled its executiveorganization Tuesday, yet its hunt for a new president continues.The NGSA said it still does not have a timeline for an appointmentto the presidency post, but it hopes to get the job filled quickly.

El Paso’s Caprock (NM) Station is down for emergency maintenancethat began Tuesday and will last at least through March 31. Afterthat point one of the two compressor units should be available, thepipeline said. San Juan Crossover capacity is being limited toabout 550 MMcf/d. El Paso encouraged shippers to use theTranswestern interconnect at Window Rock (AZ) to maximize flowsfrom San Juan Basin.

The Senate unanimously passed two economic relief measures forindependent oil and gas producers on Tuesday. The bad news,however, is that the initiatives are part of a supplementalspending bill that President Clinton has threatened to veto becausethe expenditures – mostly for foreign aid efforts – would cut intospending for domestic programs that he supports.