In what brings to an end nearly all the major lawsuits still pending against the failed energy trader formerly known as Enron Corp., Citigroup will pay Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. $1.66 billion under terms of a MegaClaims settlement approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement was reached March 26, Enron said. Citigroup also agreed that indemnification claims, to which the bankruptcy court had already established a $4 billion claim reserve, and an additional $249.4 million of claims against the Enron estate held by the bank, would be waived. In addition to the cash settlement, about $1.7 billion of cash held in a disputed claims reserve will be included in a special distribution to creditors in the near term, Enron said. “The settlement with Citigroup marks an important milestone in winding up the Enron estate,” said Enron CEO John Ray III. “Upon implementation of the settlement, the Enron estate expects to return approximately $5 billion to creditors, which brings us to nearly $20 billion in total returned to creditors.”

Grabbing a piece of the Powder River Basin gathering and processing pie while also expanding the company’s geographic reach, Radnor, PA-based Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP (PVR) has acquired Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP‘s 25% member interest in Thunder Creek Gas Services LLC for $50 million in cash. Funding for the acquisition was provided by borrowings under PVR’s revolving credit facility. Thunder Creek is an independently operated joint venture that is one of the major coalbed methane gatherers in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Thunder Creek’s primary assets consist of a 355-mile high-pressure gathering system with a capacity of 450 MMcf/d, five low-pressure gathering systems with 194 miles of pipeline, a 210 MMcf/d carbon dioxide treating facility and approximately 65,000 hp of compression. “The Thunder Creek acquisition expands the geographic scope of PVR Midstream into a prolific, resource-rich producing basin that is expected to continue to grow,” said PVR CEO A. James Dearlove. “Thunder Creek is one of the primary gatherers and transporters in the basin and has a stable supply base of predominantly coalbed methane production. This acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to distributable cash flow and provides an opportunity to establish a new platform from which to pursue additional midstream acquisitions, along with providing a steady, fee-based revenue stream.”

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