Utilities Plan Pipeline to California From Arizona

Pacific Lighting Corp. and two other natural gas companies Monday announced plans to build a $250-million pipeline to the San Joaquin Valley that can provide gas for use in oil production operations.

The pipeline will connect with an existing gas system at Topock, Ariz., near the California border, and extend 430 miles to a point near Bakersfield, officials said.

The line will be jointly owned by Los Angeles-based Pacific Lighting, parent company of Southern California Gas Co.; Houston Natural Gas Corp., and El Paso Natural Gas Co., a subsidiary of Burlington Northern Inc.

Officials said final details of the agreement, including the share each partner would own in the line, are expected to be worked out within 60 days. The line is expected to have a capacity of 400 million to 600 million cubic feet of gas a day, roughly equivalent to the consumption of 2.5 million residential customers. The pipeline is expected to be completed in 1988.

Harry L. Lepape, vice president in charge of pipeline operations for Pacific Lighting, said the line will provide gas to oil producers that can be burned to generate steam in the production of thick, heavy oil. The steam is pumped into the ground to heat the oil and make it thin enough to flow to the surface.

The producers currently burn oil to make the steam but would like to switch to less-expensive natural gas. However, Pacific Lighting officials said existing pipeline capacity has limited the amount of gas that the utility can sell to the oil producers to about 10 million cubic feet a day.

Lepape said that, initially, the three gas companies will not sell any gas to the oil producers. Rather, he said, the line will transport gas that the oil companies either produce themselves in the Texas-Oklahoma area or buy from other producers in that region.