FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, OH, acquired Belden Energy Services,a subsidiary of Belden & Blake Corp. that sells gas to retailcustomers in Ohio. Belden Energy Services, with 1998 revenues of$44 million, is based in North Canton, OH, and would become part ofFirstEnergy Trading Services. Belden, with annual sales of nearly15 Bcf of gas, has about 600 commercial and industrial customers.

“Our acquisition of Belden Services further expandsFirstEnergy’s retail natural gas business in Ohio and surroundingstates, increasing our annual retail gas revenues to approximately$500 million,” said FirstEnergy Vice President Art Garfield. “Wehave repositioned our company as a full-service energy servicesprovider and a significant marketer of natural gas in Ohio.” Termsof the proposed sale were not disclosed.

Belden Energy Services will become the fourth gas operationacquired by FirstEnergy since June 1998 when it purchased MARBELEnergy Corp. Earlier this year, FirstEnergy purchased Atlas GasMarketing Inc. (AGM), which had revenues of $45 million, and servesmore than 13,000 customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.FirstEnergy also has marketing rights for all of Atlas America’sgas production.

In October, FirstEnergy completed the purchase of VolunteerEnergy LLC, a gas marketing company based in Columbus, OH, thatserves about 30,000 customers in the Midwest. FirstEnergy alsoformed a joint venture with Fort Worth, TX-based Range ResourcesCorp. to combine both companies’ gas properties and pipelines inthe Appalachian Basin. Called Great Lakes Energy Partners LLC, theventure has proved reserves of 450 Bcfe of gas and oil (90% gas)and 4,700 miles of pipelines, as well as drilling rights to 980,000acres.

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