Thursday March 1, 3:20 pm Eastern Time

El Paso work on gas line to Calif. to cut flows by half

SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 (Reuters) - El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG) said Thursday a planned three-day maintenance on its natural gas pipeline in the Southwest extending to California, was likely to begin Saturday and will cut flows by half on the line.

``Unless we get a change, the maintenance will begin on Saturday and not Friday,'' a spokesman at EPNG, a unit of El Paso Energy (NYSE:EPG - news), said, adding that gas flows on EPNG's South Mainline would be cut by roughly 450,000 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) during the maintenance.

News of the pipeline work was blamed for the sharp rise in wholesale gas prices at the Southern California Border, a major delivery point, which spiked by more than $10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) to the mid-$20 area, gas traders said. Average Socal prices on Wednesday traded at $12.25.

South Mainline, which runs from west Texas to California, has operated at around 920 mmcfd, or 85 percent of capacity, since August when an explosion on the line resulted in a 200 mmcfd, or 15 percent, reduction in its operating capacity.

The maintenance is likely to be completed by Monday, the spokesman said. Gas flows would then be restored to around 920 mmcfd for gas day Tuesday, he added.

Before the August explosion, which killed 12 people camping in the surrounding area, South Mainline had operated at about 1.08 billion cubic feet a day.

There is currently no estimate as to when complete gas flows will be restored through the South Mainline system.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010301/n01391103.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 01, 2001