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Instead, the N.C. and Oklahoma partners planning to build the Buccaneer line will buy a rival pipeline.
By JAMES THORNER
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 18, 2000
LAND O'LAKES -- A partnership of two of the nation's biggest energy companies has scrapped plans to build a controversial natural gas pipeline that would have come ashore in Pasco County and crossed Florida.
Instead, the Williams Co. and Duke Energy Corp. have agreed to take over a rival pipeline that would make landfall in Manatee County.
The deal ends a two-year battle to decide which pipeline would serve Florida's growing energy market. Neither party would disclose the sales price.
The 678-mile Buccaneer pipeline was expected to start in Mobile, Ala., make landfall near the Anclote River and end near Cape Canaveral.
The surviving pipeline, the 744-mile Gulfstream project, would start near Coden, Ala., cross the Gulf of Mexico to Manatee County and end in St. Lucie County.
Both projects were awaiting final approval from regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The cancellation of Buccaneer cheered Pasco County residents who opposed the project on safety grounds.
"This is really great," said Bob Allen, who served on the county's citizen advisory committee that held many hearings on Buccaneer. "I still don't trust them yet, but it is great."
Williams spokesman Chris Stockton said the deal is for real.
"We plan to cease development of Buccaneer once the purchase is closed, and at that time we will withdraw the application from FERC," Stockton said.
The two proposals for new pipelines had been competing for potential customers, government approval and community support. In the end, however, consolidation in the energy industry decided the fight.
Coastal Corp. of Houston decided to sell its Gulfstream pipeline under pressure from the Federal Trade Commission, which is overseeing a merger between Coastal and El Paso Energy Corp.
El Paso owns 50 percent of the state's existing interstate pipeline, the Florida Gas Transmission Line. The FTC urged Coastal to divest itself of Gulfstream lest it monopolize the Florida gas market.
"We're stepping into Gulfstream's shoes, and we're going to develop the project," said Robert Evans, president of Duke Energy Gas Transmission.
Florida Gas Transmission is moving forward with plans to expand its present line, which runs south from the Florida Panhandle.
Evans said it's been "less than a month" since Coastal seriously approached Duke, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., and Williams, based in Tulsa, Okla. He said the offer was hard to refuse: The Florida market would support only one new pipeline, and Gulfstream had made more progress than Buccaneer.
Gulfstream not only was further along in buying right-of-way, it also had lined up 10 Florida utilities and power plants as customers. Gulfstream cut a multimillion-dollar deal in July with the Manatee County Port Authority to lease more than 100 acres near where the pipeline would come ashore.
By comparison, progress for Buccaneer in Pasco was sluggish. As late as October, scores of angry residents were protesting the pipeline route through fast-growing suburbs such as Land O'Lakes.
By buying Gulfstream, Duke and Williams hope to have a pipeline up and running by June 2002, a year ahead of Buccaneer's projected starting date. Pending final approval by FERC, Gulfstream construction is expected to start in 2001.
"With the two projects, we couldn't positively say we were going to have a pipeline," Evans said. "We can positively say that now."
A new pipeline would help fill a demand in Florida for an estimated 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2007, a demand that will require the construction of as many as 20 new power plants. Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fuel than coal and oil.
"We believe the majority if not all of the new plants will be natural-gas fired," Evans said.
The $1.6-billion Gulfstream project would have the capacity to pump about 1.2-billion cubic feet of natural gas a day, enough to produce electricity to power 4.5-million homes.
If the sale goes through, Gulfstream and Buccaneer will consolidate rival offices they have maintained for the past few years in Florida.
"There will be a transition to hand off the baton," Stockton said.