MORGANTOWN – Hope Gas has asked the state Public Service Commission to put on hold its proceedings to abandon its Red Lines pipeline system spanning 22 counties and convert its customers along those lines from natural gas to propane or electricity.
Although Hope announced in January it had an agreement for Diversified Midstream to acquire the lines, Hope stated in its Wednesday filing the deal hasn’t been finalized.
Oil and gas producers along the line have raised concerns that without that access, there would be no way to move gas out of that area.
Also, Hope plans to file a new base-rate case on April 30, and some producers want to see that in order to consider their interests in the cases. The farm tap and the abandonment cases were originally separate, and then briefly consolidated and separated again.
“Hope believes it is in the best interest of all parties and Hope’s customers that these proceedings be held in abeyance at this time,” Hope said.
On Feb. 21, the PSC ruled that Hope Gas may convert about 479 farm-tap customers to propane or electricity, contingent on the PSC also permitting Hope to abandon its Red Lines. Hope has contended that the per-customer cost of maintaining those natural gas connections has become too costly.
Producers along the lines have told the PSC of their concerns about their ongoing ability to transport their gas if Diversified acquires the lines, and raised questions about future maintenance of the lines.
In a statement, Hope commented on Wednesday, “Some of the issues raised in these proceedings have been contentious, and some preliminary settlement discussions have also occurred.”
Hope said that it believed customers might benefit from the conclusion of these cases when it filed its new base-rate case, but that won’t happen while the proceedings remain pending and contested.
Hope is asking the PSC to issue an order as soon as possible on its request to put the Red Line proceedings on hold, until Hope files to once again continue them. In the meantime, it is canceling planned town hall meetings to speak with farm-tap customers along the lines.
Hope proposed in filings last August and October to abandon the Red Lines, about 1,069 miles, because they are no longer necessary or useful and that providing safe, reliable, economic service to the farm-tap customers along those lines is in jeopardy because existing service is either unsafe, unreliable, uneconomical, or any combination of the three.
If the deal with Diversified goes through, Hope has said, it would still proceed with its plans to convert the farm tap customers to propane, or electricity provided by an electric utility if they prefer, at its own expense. While propane is more expensive, it would charge those customers its lower natural gas rate.
