Enron Mail

From:drew.fossum@enron.com
To:jeffery.fawcett@enron.com
Subject:Re: California Storage
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Tue, 29 Feb 2000 05:02:00 -0800 (PST)

Maybe he's my long lost granddad! DF




Jeffery Fawcett
02/29/2000 10:15 AM
To: Drew Fossum/ET&S/Enron@ENRON
cc:

Subject: California Storage

Jim Fossum is about a hundred years old. He's been employed by nearly every
storage developer operating in the state. We knew him back in the early 90's
(that's 1990's) when he was trying to sell the "Ten Section" project to
Mojave Pipeline. The Ten Section is the project referred to in the press
clipping near Bakersfield, CA. Their other project ("Lodi") is in direct
competition with the "Wild Goose" storage project near Sacramento.








From: Drew Fossum 02/29/2000 10:01 AM


To: Lorna Brennan/ET&S/Enron@ENRON
cc: Steven Harris/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lee Huber/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Susan
Scott/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lindy Donoho/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Jeffery
Fawcett/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lorraine Lindberg/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Kevin
Hyatt/ET&S/Enron@Enron, Christine Stokes/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, TK
Lohman/ET&S/Enron@ENRON

Subject: Re: California Storage

No, not that I know of. I've never met the western Fossum, but I do know the
guys who own Western Hub pretty well--John Strom and Larry Bickle. If we
have any interest in this project or other merchant storage in California,
these are the guys to deal with as they have mapped about 90% of the state
looking for salt or other storage plays.


ET & S Business Intelligence
From: Lorna Brennan on 02/28/2000 02:50 PM
To: Drew Fossum/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Steven Harris/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lee
Huber/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Susan Scott/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lindy
Donoho/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Jeffery Fawcett/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Lorraine
Lindberg/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Kevin Hyatt/ET&S/Enron@Enron, Christine
Stokes/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, TK Lohman/ET&S/Enron@ENRON
cc:
Subject: California Storage

Drew, a relative of yours?

CA Merchant Storage Plant Passes Major Test

California regulators Thursday released a final environmental impact
report for the
state's second merchant underground natural gas storage project in the
Sacramento
Valley of northern California. Absent new opposition from surrounding
landowners,
Texas-based Western Hub Properties hopes to have its $80 million storage
project
operating by the end of this year, following a year's delay in the
approval process for
environmental review.

Western Hub is also pursuing a similar-sized underground storage project
in Texas and
it has identified a site for a second California storage operation in
the Bakersfield area,
according to Jim Fossum, Western's California operations manager.

Final approval of the Lodi Gas Storage Project located south of
Sacramento should
come in May, Fossum said, meaning that construction could begin this
summer and be
operational before the end of the year. "We see the environmental report
as the 'light at
the end of the tunnel'," Fossum said.

Under California's environmental review process (CEQA), the California
Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) prepared a draft environmental report (EIR)
identifying the
project's environmental impacts and mitigation measures. The draft then
was circulated
to appropriate public agencies and the general public for comment before
the final
report can be issued. Three public hearings on the draft report were
held by the CPUC
last October.

Under the CPUC's procedures, a proposed decision from the administrative
law judge
for the case is due by mid-March, after which there is a 30-day period
before the
project can come before the five-member commission for a final decision,
a CPUC
spokesperson said.

"We hope to be on-line, and that is 'hope', this year because we already
have our
compressors and pipe, so it is just a matter of getting crews there and
that can go pretty
quickly," Fossum said. "In the best of all worlds it would be this year;
in the worst case,
it would be a year from now."

Western Hub has some of its customers lined up, and it is in current
discussions with
others, said Fossum, declining for competitive reasons to even identify
the types of
customers, although they are expected to be large shippers, marketers,
power plant
operators and other large industrial customers.

The Lodi project is designed for full operation as having a 12 Bcf
working capacity,
with 400 MMcf/d injection and 500 MMcf/d withdrawal capacities. It will
be
connected to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s backbone transmission system
through a
35-mile pipeline consisting of three miles of 30-inch-diameter and 32
miles of
24-inch-diameter pipe. During the past year's delay in start-up, Western
has "moved
the pipeline around a bit, but not a whole lot," Fossum said. "to make
accommodations
to nearby farmers."

Western Hub's similar-sized Texas project is south of San Antonio and
would be
connected with three natural gas transmission systems in the area:
Houston Pipeline,
PG&E --- Texas (bought recently by El Paso) and the City of San Antonio.
"We
expect to have it on-line the same time as Lodi," Fossum said.

Fossum said Western is "moving ahead" with a second California site in
the Bakersfield
area, but he declined to give any further details, noting Western Hub
expects to have
more definitive information next month. He did say that if a second
California project
moves ahead, Western expects to have it operational by early 2002.

Unlike northern California, storage in the Bakersfield area would not
have to connect
with the local utility transmission system of Southern California Gas.
The combined
Kern River/ Mojave interstate pipeline also comes into the area.