NGI Staff Reports

Philadelphia-based Resource America Inc. announced it has signedan agreement to acquire the stock of Viking Resources Corp., aprivately held energy and energy finance company based in NorthCanton, OH, and centered in the Appalachian Basin.

Development is accelerating on Canada’s newest natural gasfrontier, as a third production project steps forward to tapdiscoveries in the southern Northwest Territories.

Kansas City Power & Light and Western Resources successfully reached an agreement with the FERC settling all merger-related issues, Western Resources said last week. The company also said the agreement forged between the merging parties and the Missouri Public Service Commission staff is currently being reviewed by the Missouri commissioners. Only the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) approval stands in the way of the merger’s completion, the company said.

The war of words over the controversial Southwest GasCorp.-Oneok Inc. union escalated last week. It began with ChairmanCarl J. Kunasek of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) firingoff letters to the two merger partners asking them to agree to letSouthern Union (SU), the unsuccessful suitor for Southwest Gas,intervene in the ACC proceedings involving the proposed merger.Both Southwest Gas and Oneok not only objected to the chairman’srequest, but also challenged Southern Union to prove “once and forall” its allegations that ACC officials – at the request of Oneok -illegally influenced Southwest’s choice of merger partner.

Boston-based BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System completedtheir merger into $4.5 billion NSTAR last Wednesday – one day afterwinning approval for the transaction from the Securities andExchange Commission.

The Orlando [FL] Utilities Commission (OUC) approved the sale ofthe municipal utility’s 619-MW Indian River Steam Generation Plant(IRP) to Reliant Energy for $205 million.

AES Corp., a major electric generation and distribution company, continued to shift its focus onto downstream operations by forming a new subsidiary, Power Direct, to compete for electricity and natural gas retail customers in U.S. markets. Power Direct already is licensed to sell electricity in New Jersey and anticipates the receipt of a license in Pennsylvania by the end of August. The company plans to begin marketing in those states in the near future.

Electric deregulation is moving faster in the virtual world thanthe real world. While power choice has yet to sweep the land, threeproviders of Internet-based power trading are expanding/upgradingtheir systems to meet demand and improve system flexibility.

The Justice Department has said it will go court to seek civilpenalties and an injunction against Williams’ Transcontinental GasPipe Line Co. unless the two sides can reach an agreement overalleged violations involving seepage of polychlorinated biphenylcontaminants along the pipeline’s route.