In a move to improve organization and reduce overlap, AquilaEnergy laid off all 34 members of its industrial gas sales team.Their work will be picked up by Aquila’s commercial gas sales team,located in Columbus, OH.

“The two teams had increasingly the same customer base, and inan effort to streamline operations, we decided to disband theindustrial team,” said George Minter, a Utilicorp spokesman. “Wethink this consolidation will make our operations much moreefficient.” Minter declined to give any more details. He did saythat Aquila still intends to maintain its sales volumes, despitethe apparent cutback. He also said there has been no decision onwhether to expand the commercial sales team. It is currently anindependent sales force of 50 people.

Aquila Energy ranked fourth in gas sales by volume for the firstquarter of 1999 by selling 10.8 Bcf/d. For 1998, theKansas-City-based company ranked only behind Enron in gas sales byvolume, selling 9.6 Bcf/d.

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