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A large negotiated rate contract between Northern Natural andits affiliated Enron North America Corp. made it through FERC lastweek, but not without a promise of further regulatory scrutiny.FERC accepted the deal, which covers about one-third of Northern’sfirm space, on the condition that the pipeline submit a detailedexplanation of how the various pricing options work. The follow-upreview is based largely on a protest filed by Northern shipper GPMGas.

Florida Gas Transmission postponed until further notice thereplacement of 120 feet of 36-inch pipe under High 331 betweenStations 12 and 13 in the Florida Panhandle, and also canceled theassociated Overage Alert Day east of Station 12. The project had beenscheduled for Thanksgiving Day (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16). FGT still planned to take Station14 down to tie in additional facilities but delayed the start date byone day to Saturday (Nov. 27). That outage is expected to lastthrough Dec. 1 and limits market area deliveries to about 1.3Bcf/d. However, FGT removed the Overage Alert Day notice that waspreviously posted for the work.

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline says it’s willing to price itsproposed SouthCoast expansion in Georgia and Alabama at anincremental rate, which should melt away much of the opposition tothe project.

Columbia Energy Group sent Enron home with leftovers last weekin the form of a wholesale marketing and trading operation thatColumbia has been attempting to unload since August.

Commonwealth Edison and PECO Energy told regulators last weekthey are expecting approval of their mega-merger in near recordtime because of a long list of expected merger benefits and fewapparent regulatory hurdles. They filed applications and notices ofreorganization last week with FERC, the Pennsylvania PUC and theIllinois Commerce Commission.

The Energy Information Administration dropped a pre-holidaydowner into U.S. festivities last Wednesday, reporting 1998 U.S.crude oil and natural gas reserve additions chased lower pricesdeep into the minus column.

The mega-merger candidates in the production industry face anuphill battle in California, according to the state’s attorneygeneral, who promised close scrutiny of their transactions lastweek. With a new study on the causes of a gasoline price spikesthis summer in hand, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said there’s adistinct lack of oil industry competition in the state.

Transcontinental Gas Pipeline says it’s willing to price itsproposed SouthCoast expansion in Georgia and Alabama at anincremental rate, which should eliminate much of the opposition tothe project.

Anticipating that high system linepack will continue through theweekend due to low gas demand and limited storage injectioncapability, Tennessee Tuesday issued an OFO Action Alert to takeeffect with Thursday’s gas day. Customers under Rate Schedules SA,LMS-PA, LMS-MA and transportation contracts not covered by abalancing agreement must keep deliveries into the system less thanor equal to scheduled quantities plus 2% (or 500 dekatherms,whichever is greater); takes from the system must be more than orequal to scheduled quantities minus 2% or 500 dekatherms. Tennesseeexpects the alert to remain in effect into the start of next week.