THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701050095
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FAYETTEVILLE LENGTH: 60 lines
Terrence Davis, vice president for operations of North Carolina Natural Gas, said Friday that a helicopter survey this month will scout the most economical route for a natural gas pipeline to northeastern counties.
``There is a lot of water and a lot of wetlands that have to be crossed, and our engineers have to find the best path to follow before we can make any decisions,'' Davis said at NCNG's corporate headquarters in Fayetteville.
For several years, economic developers and city and county officials in the northeast have pressured gas companies to extend their supply lines farther east.
Economists point out that nearly all modern industry is based on some form of heat; once a pipeline is built, natural gas is one of the cheapest household and industrial fuels.
Most of the pipeline proposals have involved bringing in natural gas from the Ahoskie area, where NCNG pipelines terminate. Much of North Carolina's gas is piped to the state, and to the rest of the country, from Texas.
``They tell us the main cost problem is getting gas across the Chowan River or Albemarle Sound,'' said Jimmy Dixon, chairman of the Northeast Economic Development Partnership.
But Davis, the NCNG executive, said there will be a meeting with members of the General Assembly next week to discuss various financing options that have been made available to the natural gas company to expand existing pipelines.
``We hope to sit down with the General Assembly members and see what new initiatives we can undertake,'' Davis said.
Rep. William C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr., D-Pasquotank, is chairman of the legislative infrastructure committee that will meet in Raleigh.
Davis indicated that NCNG was increasingly encouraging further discussion of ways and means of getting natural gas across the water barriers and into the northeastern counties.
Some private talks have already taken place to discuss the possibility of ``co-generation'' of electrical power to create a more favorable profit-and-loss picture for the gas company in areas that it is now hesitant to serve for economic reasons.
``The only thing that prevented us from moving in years ago is the economic balance sheet,'' said a NCNG executive. ``We simply don't see enough business to justify a pipeline at this time.''
The executive said co-generation of electric power and other developments in gas utilization could ``change the picture.''
``Electricity has always been high-priced in northeast North Carolina,'' he said.
``There has been some talk of building co-generating plants that would run generators with gas. The power companies are required to buy such co-generated electricity, which could bring down electric costs as well as give us a chance to sell more gas and build more pipelines.''
Several years ago, an electric co-generating plan was proposed when First Colony Farms sought to use vast peat deposits on the south shore of Albemarle Sound in Washington County as fuel.
The First Colony scheme was to make electricity with peat-fired steam generators and sell the power to the electric companies, which could then sell less expensive power to encourage more economic development.
A shaky business outlook at the time discouraged the idea.