Wednesday

Williams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) bought $119million worth of pipe and compressor facilities for the MarketLinkexpansion Wednesday despite the project’s lack of final approvalfrom FERC. Construction is scheduled to begin when MarketLinkclears all its regulatory hurdles in the late spring or earlysummer of next year.

Under the “Energize RI” program, Providence Gas Co. (ProvGas)was awarded $2.45 million Wednesday by the Rhode Island PublicUtilities Commission (PUC) for losses attributable to externalforces the utility experienced last winter. The original requestwas granted by the the PUC’s Division of Public Utilities andCarriers (the Division) in March but it was subject to PUCapproval.

Everyone seems to be “joining the slow club,” one sourceremarked Wednesday as the last day of June futures trading onlynudged June baseload and the day-trading markets slightly higherfrom the holding patterns established Tuesday. Today will be muchmore active, he said, because the Nymex closes early Friday due toMemorial Day, and time is running out to get deals done.

FERC took a major step Wednesday towards regional operation ofthe electric transmission grid by issuing a notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR) that seeks to promote the formation of regionaltransmission organizations (RTOs) nationwide.

Hoping the second time is the charm, Duke Energy announcedWednesday an open season for 300,000 Dth/d of firm capacity on itsproposed Spectrum Pipeline project. The open season will last fromMay 7 to June 4.

Representing the latest curve on what has become a very windyroad, Southwest Gas announced Wednesday it is reviewing SouthernUnion’s revised merger offer even though it already entered into amerger agreement with Oneok earlier this week. With two offers onthe table, Southwest Gas has said it will not comment further onthe subject until a decision is made, and industry analysts say thedecision will not be easy.

Viking Gas Transmission got some good news Wednesday as FERCapproved a looping expansion of its system that will make itpossible for existing customers between the northern Minnesotaborder and West-Central Wisconsin to receive up to 28,000 Dth/d ofadditional gas supplies by the end of the year.

Scana’s South Carolina Pipeline Corp. announced Wednesday itplans to build an interstate pipeline running from South Carolinato North Carolina, and in the process held no punches on promotingits pipeline over the proposed Carolina Light and Power(CP&L)/Sonat Palmetto Pipeline project. Scana did not releasedetails of its proposal, but did say formal descriptions will beannounced in the coming weeks.

Williams told the North Carolina Utilities Commission Wednesdayit may seek contribution from North Carolina’s $200 million of newnatural gas bond funds to provide natural gas from its Transcopipeline to five counties in northeastern North Carolina.