The U.S. Census Bureau released data Tuesday showing that 57% of U.S. homes (62 million) used natural gas as a heating fuel in 2003. The second most popular home heating source was electricity, used by 31% of U.S. homes (33.9 million). According to the survey, the states with some of the highest percentages of households using gas to heat their homes were Utah (88.5%), Michigan (86.9%), Illinois (86.7%), Iowa (82.3%) and Colorado (80.2%). States having warmer climates were more likely to use electricity. More than 35% of the nation’s households using electricity were concentrated in just three states: Florida, Texas and California, the survey said.

SemGroup LP purchased MidKan LLC, which has assets in southwestern Kansas near the Trenton Field, including an 87.5-mile low-Btu pipeline system and a nitrogen rejection/helium recovery processing facility, from BCCK Engineering Inc. and Henry Holdings LLC. Subsidiary SemGas will operate the processing plant. “MidKan provides SemGas an infrastructure through which we can develop a natural gas market presence in southwestern Kansas,” said Tom Kivisto, SemGroup president and CEO. “It extends SemGas’s capabilities to offer customers pricing in the field as well as gathering, processing and marketing services.” Kivisto said SemGas will lay 20 miles of additional pipeline from the processing plant to the low-Btu pipeline system so developing production in the area can access the facility. The plant is capable of running 12 MMcf/d.

Atlanta-based Prenova Inc. said it won a contract extension to manage energy supply for Owens Corning’s North American facilities. Prenova said the multiple year contract requires it to generate energy savings by managing its energy procurement and other supply-side activities, including contract risk management, bill auditing, and web-based, automated processes for managing gas nominations to reduce financial penalties. Fred Dannhauser, global energy leader for Owens Corning, said, “Prenova has proven its value through the substantial savings on our energy supply costs.” Prenova has been working with Owens Corning since 2002.

Tulsa-based Williams has completed the purchase and retirement of approximately $200 million in 5.935% senior notes due in 2007. Approximately $1.1 billion of the notes were issued in January 2002 as a component of Income PACSSM, in connection with Williams’ FELINE PACs offering. Williams previously retired $827 million of the notes through an exchange offer that expired in October. Only $73.1 million of the original $1.1 billion obligation remains outstanding and is due on Feb. 16, 2007. With the purchase, Williams said reduced its total long-term debt to $7.9 billion from $8.1 billion.

KeySpan Corp. said it expects a $19 million profit from the sale of its remaining 17.4% share in affiliate KeySpan Energy Canada Partnership to the KeySpan Facilities Income Fund for US$119 million. The fund will sell 10.872 million units at C$13.90/unit for total proceeds of C$151 million (US$119 million), which will be used to acquire the stake in KeySpan Canada. “This transaction is the final step in the complete monetization of our ownership interest in KeySpan Canada, once again demonstrating our commitment to monetize our non-core assets and focus on growing our core businesses,” said KeySpan Corp. CEO Robert B. Catell. “KeySpan intends to use the proceeds from this transaction to initially pay down debt to further strengthen our balance sheet.”

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