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El Paso Energy Corp. last week completed its acquisition of somePG&E transmission lines following approval of a consentagreement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the TexasAttorney General. El Paso Field Services will pick up 8,500 milesof natural gas transmission pipelines that transport approximately2.8 Bcf/d, nine natural gas processing plants that now process 1.5Bcf/d and a 7.2 Bcf natural gas storage field.

El Paso Natural Gas has received approval from the U.S. Departmentof Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) to conduct moreinternal inspections on its rebuilt New Mexico pipeline, whichruptured August 19 killing 11 people (see Daily GPI, Aug. 22). Since the explosion, flowsthrough the line, which runs from West Texas to California, have beenreduced to 85% capacity, or about 920 MMcf/d.

With little fanfare from the lame-duck Clinton administration,FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker received a recess appointment lastMonday from the White House that effectively would extend his termon the Commission until the Senate adjourns next year. It alsore-designated him as chairman.

President-elect George W. Bush, a former oil driller, signaledlast week that he plans to move energy issues to center stage whenhe arrives in Washington, focusing on oil and natural gasexploration and production and opening up more federal lands tocarry out these activities.

The New Power Company fired the latest shot last week in itstwo-month-long battle with Green Mountain Energy Co. and PecoEnergy over the placement of more than 300,000 of PECO’selectricity customers. New Power announced late last week that itintended to file a protest with the Pennsylvania Public UtilityCommission (PUC) regarding the companies’ actions in allocatingthose customers.

Customers of Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power could be bringing inthe New Year in the dark if FERC doesn’t step in and order and theutility’s power supplier to keep the lights on past the bewitchinghour of midnight.

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory(NETL) through its Strategic Center for Natural Gas released asolicitation for proposals to improve the reliability of thenation’s natural gas infrastructure. NETL expects to fund researchand development projects totaling up to $10 million over athree-year period through this solicitation. Multiple awards areanticipated with industrial participants expected to contribute atleast 35% of each selected project’s cost. The proposals are due byJan. 9, 2001. The solicitation is available at the NETL web sitehttp://www.netl.doe.gov/business/solicit/index.html . For moreinformation, contact David J. Anna, (412) 386-4646, or e-mail:anna@netl.doe.gov .

As it had warned earlier (see Daily GPI, Dec. 12), ANR saidFriday it will issue an OFO restricting receipts into its Southeastsystem with Btu content exceeding 1,050 per cubic foot. The OFOstarts Jan. 1, 2001 and will remain in effect until further notice.It was caused by “the current and scheduled shutdown of numerousprocessing plants on ANR’s system,” the pipeline said. Therestriction will not apply to receipts that are dedicated andconfirmed by a known processing plant that is in operation and/orwhere the heat content of the receipts exceeds 1,050 Btus per cubicfoot but the pentanes (C5+) and heavier components do not exceed0.05 gallons per Mcf, ANR said.

The Christmas weekend market was a true hodgepodge of pricemovement. Friday’s changes ranged from more than $2 lower in theNorthern Natural Gas market area, despite a pipeline OFO still ineffect after nearly two weeks, to more than $2 higher in both ofTransco’s Zone 6 pools. Other points were arrayed at variouspositions in between, but most were flat to 20 cents down.