Korean pension fund offers $847 million for 23.44 percent of Colonial

SEOUL, Korea - National Pension Service, South Korea’s biggest investor, said it’s in talks to buy into a U.S. oil pipeline to diversify its portfolio.
The Korea Economic Daily reported that the pension fund was picked as a preferred bidder to buy Chevron Corp.’s 23.44 percent interest in Colonial Pipeline Co. for about 1 trillion won ($847 million).
National Pension denied the company was picked as the preferred bidder. Colonial’s other stockholders have rights of first refusal whenever a block of stock is on the market. Colonial stockholders would be polled one by one to ask if they wished to buy the block. If none of the other stockholders was interested, Chevron could sell the block to National Pension Service.
South Korea has said pension and sovereign wealth funds may invest in overseas energy assets as Asia’s fourth-largest crude importer competes for natural resources with China and India.
Chevron Midstream Investments holds Chevron's 23.44 percent stake in Colonial, which transports fuels from refineries in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to marketing terminals, according to Colonial’s website.
National Pension, which had 295 trillion won in assets as of June, is investing in overseas stocks and real-estate from Australia to the U.K. to diversify from domestic fixed-income holdings. The fund plans to boost its overseas investments to at least 20 percent of assets by 2015, from about 11 percent now.

Lightning ignites gasoline tank fire at Colonial’s Greensboro Junction

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Lightning is believed to have struck a large gasoline tank around 1 a.m. on the morning of June 13 at a refined petroleum tank farm in eastern Greensboro, starting a fire that caused nearby stretches of two interstate highways to be closed in both directions for several hours, authorities said.
The closed sections of Interstates 40 and 73 through Greensboro were reopened later in the morning, officials with the N.C. Department of Transportation said.
The tank farm's owner, Colonial Pipeline Co., said local firefighters extinguished the burning gasoline by using fire-suppressing foam, but fire crews stayed on throughout much of the day in case of any flare-ups.
No injuries were reported and no evacuations were ordered.
The company said that the 43,000-barrel tank was about half full when the fire broke out. Colonial employees pumped much of the fuel out of the affected tank. Firefighters sprayed water on two nearby tanks as a precaution to keep them from igniting.
Colonial Pipeline's director of communications, Steve Baker, said from Atlanta that only about half the fuel in the tank burned, and the rest was safely transferred to another tank.
The Colonial tank farm at Greensboro is a breakout facility where incoming fuel from the Gulf Coast goes into tankage before being reinjected into smaller mainlines to Baltimore, Md. The facility, known as Greensboro Junction, is situated near the Piedmont Triad International Airport.
Colonial Pipeline said it does not foresee supply problems as a result of the fire.

Colonial gets eminent domain approval for postponed new mainline

ATLANTA, Ga. - The state has extended the power of eminent domain to Colonial Pipeline Co. of Alpharetta, Ga., so it can expand its petroleum pipeline from Louisiana.
Colonial was issued the first permit by the state Environmental Protection Division under a 1995 law regulating petroleum pipelines. The permit allows Colonial to add a third pipeline that will run from Jackson, La., to Austell, Ga.
The company’s two existing mainlines provide 70 percent of the state’s gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
Colonial now needs to purchase 25-foot easements from about 500 landowners in Cobb, Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties to build the Georgia portion of the 460-mile, $3 billion pipeline expansion. Most of the 44-mile expansion in Georgia is expected to run alongside existing Colonial lines.
In February, Colonial announced it had indefinitely postponed its plans for the project because demand for gasoline and other petroleum products is down.
The EPD permit gives Colonial two years to begin purchasing easements from approximately 500 landowners in Georgia. The EPD director could extend the permit for another two years.

Colonial indefinitely delays $3 billion expansion as consumption falls

ATLANTA, Ga. - Colonial Pipeline on Feb. 23 said it has indefinitely postponed plans to expand its refined products system from Baton Rouge, La., to Atlanta.
Demand for gasoline and other petroleum products is down, making it difficult to project future market conditions, the company said in a news release.
Tim Felt, Colonial's new president and CEO, said the Alpharetta-based company was "eager to build this new pipeline, but we believe the prudent and conservative approach is best at this time."
Colonial had planned to start construction on the $3 billion pipeline in 2011.
In Georgia, negotiations with about 500 landowners for easements in Cobb. Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties would have started in 2010.
Now the timeline is uncertain, Sam Whitehead, a Colonial spokesman, said.
Colonial announced plans to build a third, 460-mile mainline next to its two existing pipelines in 2006. Colonial's pipeline system, which runs underground from Houston to the New York harbor, transports about 70 percent of the petroleum used in Georgia, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Despite the delay, the company is still seeking the permits from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. A decision is expected next month, said State Geologist Jim Kennedy.

Colonial Pipeline fine to buy new park for Greenville County, S.C.

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Millions of dollars in settlement money from a major oil spill in the Reedy River more than a decade ago will help fund an expansive new park along the river in the southern part of Greenville County, officials announced on Jan. 23.
The county will use $2.7 million set aside in the South Carolina Mitigation Trust Fund supplied from the Colonial Pipeline Company’s $7 million fine levied in 1999.
The money will go to buy 87 acres at the historic Cedar Falls area and another 17.5 acres at New Harrison Bridge Road where the river widens downstream and courses through picturesque rural landscapes, state Rep. Eric Bedingfield said during a ceremony above Cedar Falls.
The project will provide for nature trails, picnic areas and recreational access to the river from a site known for its historic dam that provided electricity to the Fork Shoals mill, a school and a doctor’s office.
Most of 2009 will be spent planning the development, but work will begin in time for an expected completion in spring 2010, said Gene Smith, the county recreation district’s executive director.

Attorneys for Colonial Pipeline retirees seek information

The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) in Boston, which represents clients nationwide with income below the poverty level for their area, has filed an ERISA lawsuit in Boston against insurer/plan administrator Unum for sending checkbooks to life insurance beneficiaries instead of the lump sum payment called for in the policies.
The NCLC has filed a lawsuit against Met Life in New York for the same practice. The organization intends to file suits against other insurance companies to stop all of them from defrauding beneficiaries by keeping their life insurance proceeds under false pretenses and investing that money for their own profits.
The insurance companies tell the beneficiaries that their money is safe in FDIC-protected checking accounts, but they do not fund the accounts until the beneficiary writes a check. The insureres tell the beneficiaries that they can write checks only if they have a financial need of $250.00 or more. If the insurer becomes insolvent, the beneficiaries will lose their life insurance proceeds retained by the insurer and not deposited in FDIC-insured accounts.
Attorneys who represent certain Colonial Pipeline Co. retirees are seeking information from beneficiaries of company-provided life insurance policies, who, after the death of the insured employee or retiree, were provided a checkbook instead of a cash lump sum payment from the insurance company. The most recent life insurance companies used by Colonial are Unum, Transamerican and Hartford. Beneficiaries with information are asked to contact Helen Cleveland at Roberts, Erck & Cleveland, 945 East Paces Ferry Road, Suite 2220 Resurgens Plaza, Atlanta, Georgia 30326-1125, 404-760-2792 direct, 404-233-2404 fax.finsurance fraud,