COLUMBIA GAS <CG> SEEKS CONTRACT COST RECOVERY
Columbia Gas Transmission
corp said it made an abbreviated, streamlined filing with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to recover a portion if
its costs of renegotiating high-cost gas purchase contracts.
    Recently, the Columbia Gas System Inc pipeline subsidiary
said, FERC denied on procedural grounds and without prejudice a
proposal to include these costs in the company's most recent
purchased gas adjustment -- or PGA -- filing.
    Noting it has has asked for a rehearing on the denial
ruling, Columbia Gas said it would withdraw its alternative
filing if the commission grantes its request for a rehearing to
include the contract renegotiation costs in its PGA or
consolidates this issue in the pipeline's general rate filing
and permit recovery, subject to refund, effective April one.
    The company said the alternative filing seeks to recover
about 79 mln dlrs a year through the pipeline's non-gas sales
commodity rates. This annual amortization amount is based on
recovery of about 653 mln drls over an 8-1/4 year period,
beginning April 1, 1987.
    Columbia Gas said the filing would increase the pipeline
commodity rates by 15.74 cts per mln Btu to 2.95 dlrs per mln.
    The company said it orginially sought to include these
costs in its PGA since the payments to products resulted in
almost five billion dlrs in prospective price relief and were
not related to take-or-pay buyout costs.
    It explained this interpretation was based on FERC's April
10, 1985, Statement of Policy which said that only take-or-pay
buyout costs must be recovered through a general rate filing
under the Natural Gas Act.
    As a result of renegotiating contracts for high-cost gas,
Columbia Gas said, it has been able to reduce the average price
paid for gas purchased from Southwest producers to 1.96 dlrs
per mln Btu in December 1986 from 3.64 dlrs per mln in April
1985.
    The pipeline said Southwestern producers account for 46 pct
of its total available gas supply this year.
 Reuter
