2. Parties to the Transaction3
GRS is an Oregon limited liability company formed in 2007 for the purpose of developing, owning, and operating the Gill Ranch Gas Storage Project (Project).4 GRS is qualified by the California Secretary of State to do business in California, and presently is a wholly owned subsidiary of NW Natural. Decision (D.) 09-10-035 granted GRS a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) to construct and operate the Project to provide natural gas storage services at market-based rates.
NW Natural is an Oregon corporation engaged in the business of purchasing, selling, storing, transporting, and distributing natural gas to more than 652,000 customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NW Natural's facilities and services in Oregon and Washington are subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utility Commission of Oregon and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and, to a limited extent, to the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).5 6
In addition to NW Natural's pipeline and distribution facilities serving core customers in Oregon and Washington, NW Natural holds contracts for transportation capacity on the Northwest Pipeline GP (Northwest Pipeline) and GTN pipelines in the Pacific Northwest to transport gas to its Oregon and Washington citygates. Only Northwest Pipeline's interstate system has direct interconnections with NW Natural's local distribution systems.
NW Natural developed, owns and, since 1989, has operated the Mist Storage Facility (Mist), an underground natural gas storage facility in Columbia County, Oregon. NW Natural uses Mist primarily for its core local distribution customers but has made excess and new storage capacity available to customers in the interstate market since 2001, pursuant to a limited jurisdiction blanket certificate issued by FERC. The Mist facility connects only to NW Natural's local distribution system in Oregon, which in turn has direct connections only with Northwest Pipeline and the Kelso-Beaver Pipeline, neither of which directly serves California.
NW Natural owns two liquefied natural gas facilities in its service territory. These facilities liquefy natural gas during the summer months for storage until the peak winter heating season, and are used to serve NW Natural's core customers.
NW Natural is not authorized to and does not provide natural gas local distribution, storage, transmission, or any other services in California. NW Natural neither directly owns nor controls natural gas transportation or storage infrastructure in or directly connected to California.
The Application states that NW Natural formed NW Natural Energy and NW Natural Gas Storage on May 26, 2009 and July 31, 2009, respectively, to segregate and account for NW Natural's regulated core gas distribution business, its regulated gas storage business, and its other investments and business activities, including NW Natural's wholly owned subsidiary NNG Financial Corporation and its equity investment in the Palomar Pipeline. NW Natural Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of NW Natural, and NW Natural Gas Storage is a wholly owned subsidiary of NW Natural Energy.
3 None of the entities that are parties to the proposed transaction have gross annual California revenues exceeding $500,000,000, and, as a result, § 854(c) does not apply to this Application.
4 The Project is located at the Gill Ranch Gas Field in Madera and Fresno Counties approximately 10 miles east of Mendota and 20 miles west of Fresno. The Project is comprised of (1) a 20 billion cubic feet underground natural gas storage field (Storage Field), within the Gill Ranch Gas Field; (2) a compressor station for injecting gas into and withdrawing gas from the Storage Field, and associated dehydration and control facilities; (3) a pipeline extending approximately 27 miles from the Storage Field to Pacific Gas and Electric Company's (PG&E) Line 401; and (4) an electric substation located at the compressor station connected to an approximately nine-mile 115 kilovolt (kV) electric power line extending from PG&E's Dairyland Mendota 115 kV power line to the compressor site.
5 NW Natural's affiliate, KB Pipeline Company (KBPC), owns a small interest in the Kelso-Beaver Pipeline, a FERC-regulated interstate natural gas pipeline that runs approximately 19 miles from the interstate pipeline facilities of Northwest Pipeline in Cowlitz County, Washington, to Columbia County, Oregon. KBPC is a wholly owned subsidiary of NNG Financial Corporation. NNG Financial Corporation, an Oregon limited liability company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NW Natural.
6 NW Natural and TransCanada Corporation were the members of Palomar Gas Holdings, LLC, the parent of Palomar Gas Transmission, LLC, an Oregon limited liability company (Palomar Pipeline). NW Natural recently assigned its membership interest in Palomar Pipeline to NW Natural Energy. Palomar Pipeline has a pending proposal before the FERC to build a new interstate natural gas pipeline in Oregon to connect the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline system to NW Natural's local distribution system.
