Columbia Energy Services, the nonregulated gas and electricmarketing subsidiary of Columbia Energy Group, signed a deal Mondayto supply many of the Eckerd Corp.’s drugstores with gas andelectric management. No terms of the deal were released.

Columbia will develop and implement programs for the acquisitionand management of Eckerd’s natural gas requirements. In stateswhere gas deregulation has reached the small commercial level,Columbia will supply gas to the stores. Columbia already managesenergy for Eckerd stores in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, andNew Jersey.

“Although the deal was done at the corporate level, we continueto add stores to the list,” said a source. “That is why we haven’tannounced the terms of the deal. Hopefully, we won’t stop untilwe’ve signed them all.”

Although the source could not reveal the names of other clients,she did say Columbia had energy management deals with othernational department stores and restaurant chains. Columbia EnergyServices markets over 4.3 Bcf/d to clients throughout the U.S.

“Columbia Energy Services is placing a distinctive focus on ournational accounts,” the spokesperson said. “This kind of agreementwill be occurring frequently in the very near future. On the scaleof things, however, this Eckerd deal is fairly substantial.”

The Clearwater, FL-based Eckerd Corp. is a wholly ownedsubsidiary of J.C. Penny Co. There are 2,900 Eckerd drug stores in20 states within the Northeast, Midwest, and Sun Belt regions ofthe U.S. Eckerd projects its 1999 revenues to be $12 billion.

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