The Pipeline Research Council International Inc. (PRCI) and itsstrategic technology partner, Houston-based Technical ToolboxesInc. (TTI), announced yesterday they plan to launchPipelineCentral.com, a neutral Internet marketplace that wouldenable suppliers to furnish services and equipment (i.e.compressors and smart pigs) more quickly to interstate natural gasand oil pipelines in the United States and overseas.

This would be the “only one [web site] focused strictly on thepipeline industry,” said Joe Summa, a spokesman for TTI, ahigh-tech software and applications service provider for the energyindustry. “Every industry you look at…..[is] creating cooperativebusiness-to-business sites for the exchange of goods and services.”

PipelineCentral.com will be set up as an independent company,with PRCI and TTI as majority owners in the venture. Each of the 31member gas pipelines in PRCI would have a minority interest, Summanoted. The company will have an initial capitalization of $50million, he said, adding that the web site exchange for pipelinesand their suppliers is expected to be up and running by nextAugust.

PRCI of Washington D.C. had been affiliated with the AmericanGas Association until last year, Summa noted. It is now anindependent not-for-profit organization comprised mostly of gaspipeline members. It currently is expanding it membership toinclude liquid pipelines, such as Colonial Pipeline and KochPipeline, and is further extending its reach outside the U.S. Forexample, Summa said Pemex in Mexico is expected to join PRCIshortly.

He believes PRCI will play an increasingly important role forinterstate pipelines now that GRI (formerly Gas Research Institute)has lost its mandatory funding from gas pipelines. This is “theonly group left that focuses on [research for] long-line gas andliquid transmission” facilities.

PRCI is funded by its pipeline members, which pay a base fee of$80,000 per year and another fee based on the mileage of theirsystem. El Paso Energy is the organization’s largest member, payingbetween $300,000-$400,000 annually, Summa said. He estimated PRCI’sannual budget is $4 million.

A few of the other gas pipeline members in PRCI include ANRPipeline, Great Lakes Gas, CMS Energy, Panhandle Energy, TrunklineGas, CNG Transmission, Columbia Gas Transmission, Columbia Gulf,Duke Energy, Enron (Florida Gas Transmission and Northern Natural),Foothills Pipeline, TransCanada Pipeline, Westcoast Energy andWilliams Gas Pipeline.

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