Wins

FERC last week awarded Tennessee Gas Pipeline a certificate forits Eastern Express Project 2000 after it had satisfied all of therequirements of the new policy statement on gas pipelineconstruction.

No sooner has El Paso Natural Gas resolved its dispute withSouthern California Edison over the 1996 capacity-turnbacksettlement than another potential threat has cropped up. Last weekthe D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Williams Field ServicesGroup Inc. another bite at the apple to challenge the rates in thecontroversial settlement.

No sooner has El Paso Natural Gas resolved its dispute withSouthern California Edison over the 1996 capacity-turnbacksettlement than another potential threat has cropped up. Last weekthe D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Williams Field ServicesGroup Inc. another bite at the apple to challenge the rates in thecontroversial settlement.

FERC yesterday awarded Tennessee Gas Pipeline a certificate forits Eastern Express Project 2000 after it had satisfied all of therequirements of the new policy statement on gas pipelineconstruction.

The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) unanimouslyapproved an accounting order earlier this week, which outlined theprocedure by which AGL Resources could file for stranded costrecovery. The parent of the deregulating Atlanta Gas Light willcompletely exit the merchant function next month.

The proposed $15 billion merger of energy giants El Paso EnergyCorp. and Sonat Inc. got a regulatory go-ahead yesterday from FERC,clearing the way for the transaction to close by early October.

In the energy industry’s version of a pas de deux, France’slargest oil company, TotalFina, and Elf Aquitaine last weekacquiesced to a friendly merger after a two-month tussle over whowould acquire whom.

After wrangling over who would take over whom, France’s largest oilcompany, TotalFina, and Elf Aquitaine agreed to merge in what thecompanies called an “amicable” deal. TotalFina agreed to improve theterms of its initial July 5 hostile offer for Elf that was worth about$43 billion. The move follows a counter-offer made by Elf forTotalFina (see Daily GPI, July 20).

FERC last week rejected Koch Gateway Pipeline’s proposed tariffrevision that would have required its shippers to obtain itsapproval before nominating out of balance. Koch sought the changeto remedy imbalances on its system, but the Commission said itcouldn’t approve it “absent clear evidence” of “real operationalproblems.”