rrrrrzzTr7
tzi zizni SATURDAY
Growth serving
huge U.S. demand
By Gordon
(Herald resources
Jaremko
editor)
A California market that needs as
much natural gas as does all of Canada
is eager, ready and waiting for
TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. to deliver
more Alberta exports by completing its
latest coup.
As TCPL was announcing its deal
this week to buy San Francisco-base-
Pacific Gas Transmission Co., the
biggest gas distributor in North Ameri-
ca was declaring that its Los Angeles
service territory needs all the Canadi-
an supplies it can get.
"There is a growing market in
southern California and we've got a
heck of a responsibility to ensure there
are gas supplies for it," Harry Lepape
said in a Calgary interview.
"It's got to be a reliable supply, and
here's the place to look," he said.
Lepape was paying calls here on the
Alberta energy establishment's key
natural gas producers, sales agencies
and regulators.
As executive of Pacif-
ic Enterprises and chairman of its Pa-
cific Interstate Co., Lepape is a key fig-
ure in an early, pioneer version of
move to swell Alberta's
gas flows into a flood.
Pacific Enterprises owns a Los An-
geles conglomerate in retailing and en-
ergy with 44,000 employees and $7.3
billion US in assets, which centres on
its home town's fuel distributor, South-
ern California Gas Co., commonly
known as SoCal.
Pacific Interstate's job is to secure
gas needed by SoCal for the sprawling
city's stoves, furnaces, boilers, air con-
ditioners and power stations. As well
as drawing more heavily on Alberta
supplies, Lepape says Los Angeles will
eventually need links to wells in the
Canadian Arctic and Alaska.
California gas consumption, cur-
rently equal to Canadian use of two
trillion cubic feet annually, is forecast
by state agencies to jump 23 per cent
in the 1990s, then keep growing at a
less spectacular but steady rate.
LIME
FRIDAY CLOSING
5 3488.29
3011.63
87.77CUS
jCDN$
London $348.75 US
STOCK LISTINGS
FIRMS FINED
Union Carbide was fined $1.7
million after it and Canadian Oxy-
gen Ltd. pleaded guilty to conspir-
ing to fix prices. Page F3
CANADIAN TARGET
Canadian Tire has become an
institution since it was founded 69
years ago, but now U.S. competi-
tors are taking aim on the huge
chain. Page F6
CRUDE OIL
(Cash Price Per Barret)
North Sea Brent
$20.10 US
Saudi Arabian Light
J17.65 US
Alaska North Slope
(to Gutt Coast)
$18.90 US
West Texas
Intermediate
S21.55US -- 15C
.mm.
jjfi""
21.90
121.75 21.80
21
22232627282930
August
CANADIAN OIL
Esso Rttourcas)
(Edmonton par priea,
Current (per barrel) 23.53
August Average 23.61
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
:
13
Calgary Herald
ST
CP AHE SECTION '
Editor: Ronald Nowell Sept. 7, 1,991
Petroleum Co. as a silent partner.
TRANSCArfADA AftD PACIFI&GAS PIPELINES -- Industry officials describe Tenneco's
7--
allied Kern River Gas Transmission
''"Vv Hudson j Co. pipeline, now being built on a
(f
rP British
I
yA-v- ay
I C
route to southern Cali- -
fornia from Wyoming for $934 million
'
Columbia
Aberta M US, as "the Altamont prebuild."
y
X,-- - A Saskatchewan
Manttoba Muse has conceded that Wyoming
harbors too little gas to fill permanent-
U NaS ' UebeC
f ly the
AtCalgary'SS Kern River line. Altamont's
f&
JVA
Pacific Gas
Own Ontario leg from southern Alberta to
Kern River's starting point at Opal,
f Wyo., is designed to top it up and possi-
bly allow an increase in overall carry-
Mom.
LAltamoT"yx Vv
ing capacity.
A contest to be first to install new
( If
Pacific Gas
Transmission j
Project ..,
VrV7r:T"y
rShf CJ
service has led to
marathon wrangles for corporate sup-
port and government approvals before
the National Energy Board, the U.S.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-
if
W 1
T
rvTl
Northern VenturaX
lo-
J
Great
iVcIsY
I I
lroquois
VstonQ
M31
sion and the California Public Utilities
Commission. The next round is expect-
ed to be fought out at a Feb. 25
Pacific Gas i Pipeline
h ( Lakes Gas meeting of the FERC.
But Muse, in an interview conduct-
1
E
RiV6r Transmission Transmission I ed as TCPL announced it is stepping
r v
into the Pacific Gas plan, dismissed
predictions there will be only enough
demand for one of the projects.
y
Atlantic He said firms with space on
- - -
I
-
L ArrVY ,
John Skrypnyk,
Ocean
Calgary Herald Lepape
River are making sales
along its route in Salt Lake City, Den-
ver, Las Vegas and California.
underlined southern Califor-
nia's hunger to secure as much Canadi-
About 60 per cent of the demand is Alberta sends gas in a wide arc south- rich Caroline area northwest of an gas as it can find with a startling
in the southern half of the state. east into the central U.S., then back Calgary to the explanation of why SoCal has support-
In reviewing Alberta's current con- west to SoCal, via facilities tacked on boundary. ed Altamont so far.
nection to southern California at a to three other pipeline systems. From there, PG&E is pledged to ex- He said the Gas ex-
10th anniversary celebration which Those deliveries of 240 million cubic pand its San Francisco-base- web of pansion should also be built, and Alta-
filled Heritage Park, he said, "If we feet daily are only a market toehold northern California distribution lines mont should only go first because big
had it to do all over again, we'd do it in compared to the target sought by TC- to reach Los Angeles and other expand- blocks of gas currently committed to it
spades." PL in buying the direct route to the ing centres such as San Diego, will otherwise be dedicated to distant
Sales to SoCal since 1981 by state, operated by Pacific Gas Trans- Glendale and Pasadena. regions such as the northeastern U.S.-
Gas Ltd. have netted 450 Cal- mission, from Pacific Gas & Electric Growth in the rich southern Califor- He said his Los buy-
gary production firms in its supply pool Co. (PG&E). nia market has drawn a long lineup of ing and distribution empire cannot af-
about $1.8 billion, plus $1.4 billion in The purchase price, tentatively set rival pipeline projects, and TCPL has ford to rely on expectations current gas
taxes and royalties for federal, provin- at $330 million to $400 million Cdn, is landed in hot competition with Tenneco surpluses are huge enough to last. '
cial and municipal governments. an admission ticket to a Gas, a giant of the U.S. "We heard those same forecasts of
Shipments take a route project to raise the Pacific Gas de- business. unlimited gas supplies in the late
created by the "prebuild" section of livery system's capacity by 755 million "We're going forward," vowed Ewell 1960s, and it turned out we didn't have
southern legs for the dormant Alaska cubic feet a day or about 75 per cent. Muse, president of Altamont Gas the deliverability (production capacity)
Natural Gas Transmission System. The deal calls for TCPL to take over Transmission Co., a we needed," Lepape said.
Starting on the system of 54 per cent of the project by expanding entry Tenneco has put in the California "That's why we went out and invest-
Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd., Pan- - its acquisition's capacity from the gas- - pipeline race, with Amoco Canada ed in new supplies from Canada."
Partners dismiss detractors
2.80
3.13
who label project too risky
By Claudia Cattaneo
(Herald writer)
Dario Berloni may have just what it takes to
.14
prove the skeptics all wrong.
He wants to turn the historic Domin-
$1.25
ion Bank building on the southwest corner of the
Olympic Plaza, just off the Stephen Avenue Mall at
1st Street S.E. into a vibrant restaurant, cappuc-
F8-- cino bar and hangout.
Despite its grandiose, classic beauty, the building
has sat empty, in a state, for years
shunned by investors because of its location.
The consensus among many developers has been
that Calgarians don't care much for their city's core
after working hours and that investing in the area
YfVl If. Y !
just isn't worth the risk.
But the
says that's nonsense.
, Montreal-raise-
"People come here when there are things to do,"
Berloni said in an interview Friday, noting the
neighboring Olympic Plaza draws huge crowds when
something is happening.
Berloni
-
'1
-
1 - - - -
IV'
.:
Dave
i
Lazarowich, Calgary
I
Herald
His plan, which has cleared planning hurdles at
REFURBISH: Berloni and Chomick plan to open a restaurant in former bank building
(right)
city hall, calls for a Mediterranean-styl-
restaurant and lounge on the building's main floor, branch was shut down in September 1986. Canada Safeway Ltd. and Novacor Chemicals Ltd.
the former main hall of the bank, and a large out- Recycling old buildings is not Berloni's main line The plastics are sorted, cleaned, washed and made
door patio amid a little "forest" of pine trees to con- of work. into pellets and sold in Canada, Europe and Asia.
ceal what is now a bare wall facing the plaza. The business administration graduate Although Berloni is not a professional restaura
Designed by Bill Chomik, a partner with the is of Polymont Plastics Corp., a pri- teur, he knows good pasta when he tastes it, and he's
ChomikCrittenden architectural firm, the restau- vate company with operations in no stranger to the business. He has an interest in
rant could be open by next spring. Red Deer, Toronto and Montreal that he runs with some of the city's popular new eateries: Mescalero,
Berloni purchased the property two years ago for his brothers Gianni and Roberto. The company also DiVino and the River Cafe in Prince's Island Park.
an undisclosed sum and has invested about $400,000 runs diverse operations in Calgary, including a plant The restaurant business in the city is
to refurbish the top three floors into a business cen- that makes plastic bottles. ' he admits, but says there's still room for a
tre, which houses Chomik's firm. Several hundred The company recycles plastic good new restaurant.
thousand dollars more are expected to be spent on scraps generated by the petrochemical industry and "In the restaurant business there is a lot of com-
the restaurant and polishing the building's facade. others, and plastic items collected in Calgary's petition, but there is a lot of lousy competition, too,"
Toronto Dominion Bank records indicate the fledgling program and by companies like he says.
Farm leader rejects call for more aid
ernment aid programs which Ot- and say, 'Yes, spend another billion ed farmers from becoming leanertmd
Grain chief urges tawa says will put $2 billion in farm- dollars' is that we're not sure that any meaner in a business flattened by a
farmers to become ers' hands in the next 12 months
are simply inadequate.
of the money that's been spent in the
past has really done us any good," says
trade war between the U.S. and Eu-
rope.
leaner, meaner Too many farmers aren't covered by
the programs or can't wait for pro-
McEwen.
"It's kept us alive, it's kept the in-
In the past decade, Europe, once a
grain importer, has emerged as one of
m By Glenn Cheater grams that won't pay out until next dustry going, but we're no better off in the world's top three grain sellers be-
21.70 (The Canadian Press) year, they say. 1991 than we were six, seven years cause its generous farm subsidies en-
WINNIPEG Farm leaders are But McEwen is taking a different ago. couraged domestic production to sky-
21.55 again singing the r blues, path one that separates his "In many cases, we're in worse rocket.
but one voice is conspicuously silent. Western Canadian Wheat shape." In a bid to get rid of its surplus, Eu-
Harvey McEwen, one of the Growers Association from most other McEwen pegs the cost of farm aid at rope began selling grain at prices far
Canadian farm leaders, has not farm groups. $20 billion over the last seven years. below what it costs to grow it 'a
3 4 5 6
joined his counterparts in demanding More farm aid might only make That cash infusion prevented move that sparked an subsidy
Ottawa cough up $1 billion or more in things worse in the long run, argues bankruptcies and eased the hardship war with the United States and left
emergency aid for farmers struggling the of farm families and communities dur- Canada caught in the crossfire. .
to cope with grain and farmer from Francis, Sask. ing a decade characterized by recur- Unless the trade war can be settled
corn prices. "One of the reasons why we're sort ring drought and low prices. propping up Canadian farmers will be,
Most farm leaders say existing gov of reticent to jump on the bandwagon But McEwen argues it has prevent a task, says McEwen-- .