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Williams Chairman Keith E. Bailey said Tuesday the company’sunaudited third quarter financials, which are expected to bereleased today, will include $70 million, or 10 cents per share, inpre-tax charges and write-downs.

Advising that pipeline monopoly power has increased with theconsolidation which has been going on over the last several years,Rebecca McDonald, an executive with Amoco and chairman this year ofthe Natural Gas Supply Assoc., warned against a reduction inregulatory oversight.

Tensions between Commissioner Curt Hebert Jr. and some fellowcommissioners, which have been rumored to be running high over thepast months, boiled over in the public meeting last week when thecombative regulator publicly labeled as “disingenu[ous] andintellectually dishonest” the majority’s decision in ahydroelectric dam decommissioning case.

Industry reports that the start-up of the Canada-to-IllinoisNorthern Border Pipeline expansion, which has been planned forearly December, may be delayed are unfounded, said an officialassociated with the project.

The screen’s drop Tuesday didn’t make much of an impression onthe cash market, which was flat at the majority of points. TheMidcontinent tended to be a little weaker than the average asMidwest citygates were down by almost a nickel after a cold fronthad cooled off the region considerably.

Lomak Petroleum and Domain Energy completed their merger andformation of a new company called Range Resources, which will havea 1 Tcf reserve base and $1 billion in total assets. The reservesare 72% natural gas with daily production at 9,248 b/d of oil andliquids and 161 MMcf/d of gas.

Williams will abandon service Sept. 1 on its Pampa Line(designated as Line Segment 470), which runs from Hemphill County,TX to the Alva Compressor Station in Woods County, OK. As of Sept.1 Williams will not confirm nominations at any of 10 Pampa Linereceipt points. Point operators must either find other outlets fortheir gas or shut it in, Williams said. Shippers currentlytransporting from those points must replace the gas with othersupplies. The Hobart Ranch and South Bishop receipt points and theArnett and Irrigation delivery points, once connected to Pampa,have been moved to the Canadian-Blackwell Line (LS 458) and canstill be nominated on Williams.

The Public Service Co. of Colorado announced yesterday italready has begun construction of its 53-mile Front Range Pipelinewhich, when completed, will serve the Denver, CO, natural gasmarket. The construction comes less than one month after theColorado Public Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead for the $25million pipeline project.

PECO Energy launched a new energy services and retail energymarketing company, called Exelon Energy, which will combine thediverse operations of Horizon Energy, PECO Energy/Energy One andPECO Energy/Horizon Group.