[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 116 (Friday, June 16, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31712-31714]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-14741]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Docket No. CP95-547-000, et al.]


Highlands Gathering and Processing Company, et al.; Natural Gas 
Certificate Filings

June 9, 1995.
    Take notice that the following filings have been made with the 
Commission:

1. Highlands Gathering and Processing Company

[Docket No. CP95-547-000]

    Take notice that on June 6, 1995, Highlands Gathering and 
Processing Company (Highlands), Highland Place I, 8085 S Chester 
Street, Suite 114, Englewood, Colorado 80112, filed a petition in 
Docket No. CP95-547-000, requesting that the Commission declare that 
certain West Texas facilities to be acquired by Highlands from Northern 
Natural Gas Company (Northern) are gathering facilities within the 
meaning of Section 1(b) of the Natural Gas Act (NGA) and therefore, 
exempt from Commission jurisdiction, all as more fully set forth in the 
petition which is on file with the Commission and open to public 
inspection.
    Highlands relates that it currently owns and operates extensive 
facilities for the gathering, treating, and processing of natural gas 
in the Permian Production Area of West Texas, and that all of its 
current operations are exempt from Commission jurisdiction pursuant to 
NGA Section 1(b). Highlands states that it does not perform any 
jurisdictional transportation services.
    It is stated that on April 21, 1995, Highlands, Northern, and 
Highlands Gas Corp. entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant 
to which Highlands will acquire from Northern approximately 127 miles 
of four inch to sixteen inch pipeline, in addition to seven compression 
stations, all of which are upstream of Northern's transmission 
facilities which commence at the El Dorado compressor station. Upon 
completion of the acquisition of the facilities, Highlands asserts that 
it will use them in combination with its existing gathering system to 
gather and process gas and to offer a full range of services on terms 
dictated by market conditions to producers and gas purchasers.
    Highlands notes that Northern has filed in Docket No. CP95-543-000, 
a companion abandonment application pursuant to Section 7(b) of the 
NGA, for permission to abandon, by sale to Highlands, the subject 
facilities, with appurtenances, located in Crockett, Schleicher, 
Sutton, and Val Verde Counties, Texas.
    Highlands states that the facilities consist of three 
interconnected pipeline segments: the Hunt-Baggett Segment, the 
Vinegarone Segment and the Hulldale Segment, which intersect at the El 
Dorado compression station. Highlands says it intends to operate the 
segments as an integrated single system for the purpose of gathering. 
Highlands indicates that the seven compressor stations are rated at 
between 75 and 2313 horsepower with five of them operating at 195 
horsepower or less, and that although certain pipeline segments may 
realize pressures up to 500 psig, most of the facilities are operated 
at pressures of 300 psig or less.
    Highlands submits that the subject facilities described in its 
petition meet the criteria of ``gathering facilities'' under Section 
1(b) of the NGA as interpreted by the Commission using the ``primary 
function'' test, as set forth in Farmland Industries, Inc., 23 FERC 
para.61,063 (1983). Highlands asserts that the following facilities, 
described in more detail in the petition, meet the Commission's 
standards for gathering: the length and diameter of the pipelines; the 
El Dorado compressor station considered as the central point in the 
field where the three pipeline segments converge before discharging gas 
into Northern's transmission system; the pipelines which transport gas 
from field gathering systems to the transmission facilities of an 
interstate pipeline company or to a gas processing plant prior to 
delivery into such transmission facilities; the size and operating 
pressure of the facilities; and the amount and use of compression 
capacity.
    Comment date: June 30, 1995, in accordance with the first paragraph 
of Standard Paragraph F at the end of this notice.

2. Overthrust Pipeline Company

[Docket No. CP95-545-000]

    Take notice that on June 5, 1995, Overthrust Pipeline Company 

[[Page 31713]]
    (Overthrust), 79 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 filed 
in Docket No. CP95-545-000 an application pursuant to Section 7(b) of 
the Natural Gas Act, as amended, and Sections 157.7 and 157.18 of the 
Commission's Regulations thereunder for permission and approval to 
abandon natural gas transportation service for Columbia Gas 
Transportation Corporation (Columbia) and charge and collect from 
Columbia a negotiated exit fee all as more fully set forth in the 
application on file with the Commission and open to public inspection.
    Overthrust proposes to abandon the firm transportation service 
provided for Columbia pursuant to a October 8, 1982 transportation 
agreement (the Agreement) which provided for Overthrust to transport 
and deliver, for Columbia's account, up to a maximum of 55,000 Mcf per 
day purchased by Columbia from Chevron USA, Inc.'s Carter Creek and 
Whitney Canyon fields located in the Overthrust Producing Area of Uinta 
County, Wyoming. Overthrust indicates that the transportation service 
was provided pursuant to Overthrust's Rate Schedule T. Overthrust, 
noting that the contract will expire on January 1, 2003, explains that 
Columbia informed Overthrust that it implemented restructured services 
under the Commission's Order No. 636 effective October 1, 1993, and 
that, as a result of the restructuring, Columbia no longer requires the 
transportation service under the agreement.
    Overthrust further states that on March 3, 1995, Overthrust and 
Columbia entered into a Stipulation terminating all contractual 
obligations established under the Agreement through the payment of a 
negotiated exit fee by Columbia to Overthrust.
    Additionally, Overthrust states that it does not propose to abandon 
any facilities in conjunction with the instant abandonment 
authorization request nor will there be any abandonment of facilities 
as a result of the Commission granting the requested abandonment 
authorization.
    Comment date: June 30, 1995, in accordance with Standard Paragraph 
F at the end of this notice.

3. Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company and Trunkline Gas Company

[Docket No. CP95-542-000]

    Take notice that on June 5, 1995, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line 
Company (Panhandle) and Trunkline Gas Company (Trunkline), P.O. Box 
1642, Houston, Texas 77251-1642, filed a joint application with the 
Commission in Docket No. CP95-542-000 pursuant to Section 7(b) of the 
Natural Gas Act (NGA) for permission and approval to abandon an 
emergency exchange agreement which was authorized in Docket No. CP76-
6,\1\ all as more fully set forth in the application which is open to 
the public inspection.

    \1\55 FPC 1041 (1976).
    Panhandle and Trunkline, by mutual agreement, propose to abandon 
their emergency exchange services provided under Panhandle's and 
Trunkline's respective FERC Rate Schedules E-11 and E-18. Panhandle and 
Trunkline state that no facilities would be abandoned in this proposal, 
rather the interconnection of Panhandle's 4-inch diameter lateral and 
Trunkline's 26-inch diameter mainline in Vermilion County, Illinois, 
would remain in place and available for open-access transportation 
service. In the event that future emergency service should become 
necessary, Panhandle and Trunkline state that it would be performed 
under Part 284, subpart I of the Commission's Regulations.
    Comment date: June 30, 1995, in accordance with Standard Paragraph 
F at the end of this notice.

4. K N Interstate Gas Transmission Company

[Docket No. CP95-530-000]

    Take notice that on May 31, 1995, K N Interstate Gas Transmission 
Company (K N Interstate), P.O. Box 281304, Lakewood, Colorado 80228-
8304, filed in Docket No. CP95-530-000 a request pursuant to Sections 
157.205 and 157.212 of the Commission's Regulations under the Natural 
Gas Act (18 CFR 157.205, 157.212) for authorization to install and 
operate eight new delivery points located on K N Interstate's main 
transmission system in Adams, Boone, Dawson, Harlan, Howard, Webster 
and York Counties, Nebraska and Phillips County, Colorado under K N 
Interstate's blanket certificate issued in Docket No. CP83-140-000, et 
al., pursuant to Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act, all as more fully 
set forth in the request that is on file with the Commission and open 
to public inspection.
    K N Interstate states that the proposed delivery points will be 
added under an existing transportation agreement between K N Interstate 
and K N Energy, Inc. (K N) and will be used by K N to facilitate the 
delivery of natural gas to new direct retail customers.
    Comment date: July 24, 1995, in accordance with Standard Paragraph 
G at the end of this notice.

5. Viking Gas Transmission Company

[Docket No. CP95-539-000]

    Take notice that on June 2, 1995, Viking Gas Transmission Company 
(Viking), 1010 Milam Street, P.O. Box 2511, Houston, Texas 77252, filed 
in Docket No. CP95-539-000 a request pursuant to Sections 157.205 and 
157.212 of the Commission's Regulations under the Natural Gas Act (18 
CFR 157.205, 157.212) for authorization to establish an additional 
delivery point for firm gas transportation services to the City of 
Randall, Minnesota, under Viking's blanket certificate issued in Docket 
No. CP82-414-000 pursuant to Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act, all as 
more fully set forth in the request that is on file with the Commission 
and open to public inspection.
    Viking states that the Cambridge delivery point will be located in 
Morrison County, Minnesota, on Viking's system and that the total 
quantities to be delivered to Randall will not exceed contract 
quantities. Viking indicates that its has sufficient capacity in its 
system to accomplish the delivery of gas to the proposed delivery point 
without detriment to any of its other customers.
    The City of Randall has agreed to reimburse Viking for the costs of 
the necessary facilities which consist of a two-inch hot tap, 
measurement, and data acquisition equipment.
    Comment date: July 24, 1995, in accordance with Standard Paragraph 
G at the end of this notice.

6. Mississippi River Transmission Corporation

[Docket No. CP95-548-000]

    Take notice that on June 7, 1995, Mississippi River Transmission 
Corporation (MRT), 9900 Clayton Road, St. Louis, Missouri 63214, filed 
in Docket No. CP95-548-000 a request pursuant to Section 7 of the 
Natural Gas Act, as amended, and Sections 157.205 and 157.216(b) for 
authorization to abandon a lateral line, sales tap and related 
facilities and equipment which have been used to serve Owens-Illinois, 
pursuant to MRT's blanket authorization issued in Docket No. CP82-489-
000, all as more fully described in the request which is on file with 
the Commission and open for public inspection. MRT also proposes to 
abandon service to Owens-Illinois.
    MRT proposes to abandon approximately 750 feet of Line A-8, 
pipeline in Madison, Illinois which was used to serve Owens-Illinois. 
MRT states that Owens-Illinois has not taken any service from MRT since 
the early 

[[Page 31714]]
1980s, and it no longer requires service at this location.
    MRT proposes to blind off Line A-8 at the tap valve and remove all 
the above ground facilities. It is further stated that MRT proposes to 
abandon in place all the underground pipe.
    Comment date: July 24, 1995, in accordance with Standard Paragraph 
G at the end of this notice.

Standard Paragraphs

    F. Any person desiring to be heard or to make any protest with 
reference to said application should on or before the comment date, 
file with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 
20426, a motion to intervene or a protest in accordance with the 
requirements of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure (18 
CFR 385.214 or 385.211) and the Regulations under the Natural Gas Act 
(18 CFR 157.10). All protests filed with the Commission will be 
considered by it in determining the appropriate action to be taken but 
will not serve to make the protestants parties to the proceeding. Any 
person wishing to become a party to a proceeding or to participate as a 
party in any hearing therein must file a motion to intervene in 
accordance with the Commission's Rules.
    Take further notice that, pursuant to the authority contained in 
and subject to the jurisdiction conferred upon the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission by Sections 7 and 15 of the Natural Gas Act and 
the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure, a hearing will be 
held without further notice before the Commission or its designee on 
this application if no motion to intervene is filed within the time 
required herein, if the Commission on its own review of the matter 
finds that a grant of the certificate and/or permission and approval 
for the proposed abandonment are required by the public convenience and 
necessity. If a motion for leave to intervene is timely filed, or if 
the Commission on its own motion believes that a formal hearing is 
required, further notice of such hearing will be duly given.
    Under the procedure herein provided for, unless otherwise advised, 
it will be unnecessary for applicant to appear or be represented at the 
hearing.
    G. Any person or the Commission's staff may, within 45 days after 
issuance of the instant notice by the Commission, file pursuant to Rule 
214 of the Commission's Procedural Rules (18 CFR 385.214) a motion to 
intervene or notice of intervention and pursuant to Section 157.205 of 
the Regulations under the Natural Gas Act (18 CFR 157.205) a protest to 
the request. If no protest is filed within the time allowed therefor, 
the proposed activity shall be deemed to be authorized effective the 
day after the time allowed for filing a protest. If a protest is filed 
and not withdrawn within 30 days after the time allowed for filing a 
protest, the instant request shall be treated as an application for 
authorization pursuant to Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 95-14741 Filed 6-15-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P