NGI The Weekly Gas Market Report

Taking the first step to move across the Canadian border, NSPower Holdings Inc. announced plans to merge with its U.S.neighbor, Maine’s Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

TransCanada PipeLines has set an open season through tomorrowfor one-year firm maximum rate capacity for 750,000 gigajoules aday from Empress to several points on its system. Bids will beaccepted for FT contracts to commence anytime between Nov. 1, 2000and March 30, 2001. The FT space is available to the Saskatchewan,Manitoba or Emerson zones, or there is 300,000 gj/d available tothe Eastern Zone (SWDA). TransCanada is not considering annualshort haul transportation in the current posting, but may do so ina future posting. Also, if long haul FT offers are made aftertomorrow’s deadline, the pipeline may initiate a new open season.TransCanada currently is not authorized to offer discounted FT, but”we’re always available to sell capacity.” Contact Keith Nelson at403-267-1691 or keith_nelson@transcanada.com for information.

A little more than a year after NiSource started its pursuit of Columbia Energy Group, the merger is nearing completion. Seven out of nine states have completed the necessary regulatory actions, and the proposed union is on the docket for a vote at FERC’s next regular meeting, Wednesday, July 12.

Record rainfall in parts of central and southern Saskatchewanhas put a damper on construction of the $3 billion, 1.325 Bcf/dAlliance Pipeline, but for the time being sponsors are standing bytheir projected in-service date, sort of.

Five boat crewman were burned severely last Wednesday night whentheir two tugboats apparently ran smack into a Sonat feeder lineabout six miles east of Venice, LA, causing a rupture and a largeexplosion. The injured crewman had to be airlifted to theUniversity of Alabama’s regional burn center. The fire wasextinguished by about 11 p.m.

Parties will meet in an Atlanta courtroom today to decide whichcompany will win the right to supply the 50,000 customers of gasmarketerTitan Energy of Georgia, which filed for Chapter 11 overthe Fourth of July weekend. Titan became the second marketer toseek bankruptcy protection in Georgia in less than a year.

A group of natural gas producers has called on FERC to step in and settle once and for all the controversial issue of re-designing the capacity-allocation procedures of El Paso Natural Gas so that “firm” capacity on El Paso would really come to mean firm, and the practice of overbooking firm primary transportation capacity would become history at the pipeline’s SoCal/Topock delivery point into California.

A funny thing happened on the way to the FERC last week: prospective Independence and SupplyLink shipper Duke Energy defected, but Dynegy quickly filled in the gap as the proposed new long-haul projects re-formed their ranks and marched toward this week’s open meeting.

Columbia Gas Transmission has filed to replace its outmodedfive-day capacity bidding process with daily interactive bidding,including a daily sequence of postings, an interactive biddingperiod and after-hours market, and a shortened ROFR period(RP00-374)