Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) grabbed itself a much larger piece of the natural gas midstream segment in the Gulf of Mexico this week as the company announced that it has purchased the former MCN Investment Corp.’s ownership interest in Dauphin Island Gathering Partners (DIGP), Mobile Bay Processing Partners (MBPP) and Gulf Coast NGL Pipeline, LLC (Gulf Coast). Terms of the transaction, which closed on July 11, were not disclosed.

DEFS is currently the owner and managing partner of DIGP and MBPP and is the managing member of Gulf Coast. With this transaction, DEFS’ interest in DIGP increased from 37.3% to 71.8%; in MBPP from 28.8% to 57.6%; and in the Gulf Coast from 28.9% to 57.9%. The three integrated midstream facilities gather, transport and process gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico off of the coasts of Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama. Gulf Coast partially owns the pipelines that transport natural gas liquids extracted from the gas stream at MBPP’s Coden, AL facility to Louisiana fractionation plants.

“This timely acquisition greatly enhances our corporate growth strategy in the eastern Gulf, which is one of the most active offshore exploration and development areas in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Mark Borer, senior vice president of DEFS. “The eastern Gulf will be a critical natural gas supply basin for the growing Southeast area power plant markets in Florida, Alabama and Georgia.”

David E. Meador, DTE Energy senior vice president, said, “The former MCN Investment Corp. became a DTE Energy asset with the merger of MCN Energy and DTE Energy on May 31. Divestiture of specific assets such as this are in line with DTE Energy’s effort to divest non-core assets that do not integrate with DTE Energy’s long-term strategy.”

DEFS was formed when Duke Energy and Phillips Petroleum decided to join their natural gas gathering and processing businesses. Duke Energy owns an estimated 70% of the joint venture and Phillips owns the remainder.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.