Apache Corp. Chairman Raymond Plank said Thursday that G. Steven Farris has been elected to the position of CEO, adding to his current duties as president and COO. Plank, Apache’s founder, announced the change at Apache’s annual meeting and said he will continue to participate in the management of the company. He said the move would become effective May 29, as he turns 80. Always known to speak his mind, Plank used part of the annual meeting to blame Enron Corp. and Dynegy Inc. for manipulating natural gas prices. Last week, Plank blasted the “unholy alliance between the brethren” of marketers, that operate as middlemen between producers and consumers to create volatility. The marketers claim, “volatility is what we make money on,” but actually, they are “merely manipulating prices to their advantage,” he said (see Daily GPI, April 25 ). Farris, who is 54, has been Apache’s president and COO since 1994. He joined Apache in June 1988 as vice president of domestic exploration and production and was promoted to senior vice president in 1991. In December 1954, Plank, along with Truman Anderson and Charles Arnao, established Apache Oil Corp. in Minneapolis, MN. The public company began with 41 investors, six employees and $250,000 of seed capital.

Reef International LLC, a subsidiary of Tidelands Oil and Gas Corp. has begun the permitting process to obtain state, federal and international permits for a natural gas pipeline that will cross between Texas and Mexico. Reef will apply for permits for the Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras International Pipeline that will cross between El Paso, TX and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The pipeline is expected to serve the gas needs of the Juarez area, which has a population of 2 million and a growth rate of 25-30% a year. The international crossing will be the first of its kind, transporting natural gas, propane and butane at the same crossing through a three-line network. Tidelands offered no details on the size of the bilateral pipe.

Progress Ventures, a subsidiary of Progress Energy, closed its acquisition of Westchester Gas Co. for $148 million ($128 million in Progress Energy common stock and $20 million cash). The deal adds 140 Bcf of gas reserves, 215 producing gas wells, 52 miles of intrastate pipeline and 170 miles of gas gathering systems and is expected to be accretive to Progress Energy’s earnings in 2002. “Progress Ventures will continue to look for quality assets like Westchester Gas that further diversify our holdings, provide natural hedges for our other businesses like merchant generation and offer earnings growth potential for the company,” said Tom Kilgore, president of Progress Ventures. Westchester is a privately held gas company located in Jonesville, TX. The properties are located within a twenty-five mile radius in Texas and Louisiana. Progress Energy is a Fortune 250 diversified holding company based in Raleigh, NC, with more than 20,000 MW of generation capacity and $8 billion in annual revenues. The company owns Carolina Power & Light, Florida Power, North Carolina Natural Gas, Progress Rail, Progress Telecom and Progress Ventures. These companies serve 2.9 million customers across the Southeast, providing electricity, gas, energy services and broadband capacity.

Energy traders, marketers and generators, working with representatives of financial and accounting firms, have formed a task force to address risk valuation, management and financial accountability in the wake of Enron Corp.’s demise. Formed by the National Energy Marketers Association (NEM), the executive-level group is working on standards that could be used by the U.S. wholesale energy market. Four teams of experts are now drafting suggestions to form an industry consensus, and will coordinate with other officials in government and industry to develop national guidelines on managing credit and market risk; disclosure and reporting rules; auditing and compliance standards; and measurementsn of capital adequacy. NEM represents wholesale and retail energy marketers as well as suppliers of energy, telecom and financial products, services, information and technologies throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. For more information on the task force, call (202) 333-3288, e-mail info@energymarketers.com or visit the web site at www.energymarketers.com.

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