Houston Industries Wholesale Energy Group has opened an officein the financial district of San Francisco to help coordinate thecompany’s California generation, power marketing and associatedregulatory activities. “Houston Industries is a major player inCalifornia energy markets with nearly 4,000 MW of power generationcapacity and more scheduled to go on line in the region in 1999,”said Charles Oglesby, chairman of the HI Wholesale Energy Group.Mark Davis, regional marketing director, opened the San Franciscooffice in November.

International Gas Consulting Inc. (IGC), a Houston area gasconsulting firm, has formed a joint venture with Houston-basedJofree Corp. that will broaden the coverage of both companies, theysaid. IGC specializes in gas storage, while Jofree is experiencedin the downstream activities associated with gas and oil marketing.Jofree recently expanded to include electric power marketing due tothe convergence of gas and power marketing suppliers.

Washington Gas, the U.S. Department of Energy, the FederalEnergy Management Program and the U.S. General ServicesAdministration are planning a three-day energy conference at theRitz-Carlton Hotel, Pentagon City, Arlington, VA, Jan. 6-8. Theevent, called energyNow Workshop, is being designed to educategovernment and non-government energy procurers and managers in theMid-Atlantic region about the efficiencies and cost savings thatare available in the deregulating energy arena. Conferenceinformation is available online at www.gsa.gov/pbs/energynow.

Coho Energy has announced the sale of its Monroe, LA, gas field,including 97 Bcf of proved natural gas reserves and relatedgathering lines to a partnership managed by Enervest Management Co.for $65 million. The sale is effective June 1, 1998. The propertiesrepresented 13.8% of the company’s year-end 1997 proved reserves,but the Monroe gas field is “fully developed with little productionupside and it is not within the core areas of operation that Cohoexpects to expand in the future.” Proceeds will be used to reduceborrowings under Coho’s bank credit facility. The sale of theMonroe field is the culmination of the rationalization and sale ofthe Interstate Natural Gas Co. assets that Coho purchased inNovember 1994 for $53 million. With the sale, Coho will haverealized a total of $124 million from the assets.

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