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Enron Mail |
-----Original Message----- From: Jaquet, Tammy Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 8:43 AM To: Gottsponer, Morgan; Donoho, Lindy; Lohman, TK Subject: SoCalGas to Make System Enhancements SoCalGas to Make System Enhancements Southern California Gas Co. confirmed plans to expand its intrastate gas transportation system and make enhancements to its storage facilities to help meet record-setting gas demand by electric generators in Southern California. SoCalGas Chairman Edwin A. Guiles informed California Public Utilities Commission President Loretta Lynch of the plans in a March 27 letter. He said the company had begun modifications to its system that will allow it to deliver an additional 175 MMcf/d by year end. SoCal's Lad Lorenz told NGI last week the company was planning to increase receipt point capacity at Wheeler Ridge where it interconnects with Kern River and Mojave, at the Needles compressor station where it interconnects with Transwestern Pipeline and at a receipt point for in-state production in the San Joaquin Valley (see Daily GPI, March 23). The Topock, AZ, border delivery point, which saw the sharpest price increases this winter, was not among the points slated for expansion because of the cost of expanding there. The company plans to add 85 MMcf/d of capacity at Wheeler Ridge, 50 MMcf/d at Needles and 40 MMcf/d for in-state production. "We are taking immediate action to increase compression horsepower at three delivery stations to boost the amount of natural gas that can be transported into The Gas Company's intrastate pipeline system," said Guiles. "In light of the uncertainties surrounding future demand for natural gas on The Gas Company's system, these modifications are the least cost way that we can be assured of meeting the gas demands of all of our customers and avoid any possibility for curtailments of service." Guiles said the proposed 5% increase in capacity would be enough to serve another 1.3 million residential customers per day or to power 1,200 MW of new baseload electric generation. "The improvements are consistent with SoCalGas' goals of maintaining as much as 20% more capacity than our requirements for periods of normal demand," he said. SoCalGas also is proposing some adjustments to its gas storage operations that will help increase the in-state supply of natural gas by 24 Bcf - or enough gas to serve a half million residential customers for one year - over the next year. It already has on file at the CPUC plans to abandon the Montebello storage field in Los Angeles County and withdraw the 10-12 Bcf of base and working gas that remains in the field. In addition, the company is planning to drill several new wells at its Aliso Canyon and La Goleta storage fields in order to remove 14 Bcf of base gas, split evenly between the two fields, and sell it into the market. The reduction in base gas is expected to have no impact on the amount of working gas capacity available in each field. Because of strong gas demand last summer, the levels of natural gas at the company's underground storage reservoirs reached near historic lows this winter. The LDC is encouraging non-core shippers to get a head start on storage injections this year because it expects demand to remain strong in 2001. "Our goal for this year is to have no curtailments of gas service to our customers, but we need to maximize the use of our existing intrastate capacity in order to reach our goal," said Guiles. "We're telling our large industrial and electric generation customers that the best way that they can avoid curtailments next winter is to make full use of the available pipeline space and put natural gas in storage whenever possible, particularly during the second quarter of this year. "I believe that, if undertaken, these proposals will have a positive impact on reliability next winter," said Guiles.
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