Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced yesterday it had retainedMadison Energy Advisors to market a package of its oil and gas assetsin Texas. The properties, located in the Hemphill Field area ofHemphill County, TX, include 83 completions from 70 wells with workinginterests ranging from 5% to 100%. Current gross daily production fromthese properties is approximately 82 BOPD and 8.1 MMcf/d. Anadarko isalso looking to sell the surrounding midstream assets including theHemphill Gathering System, which gathers low-pressure wellhead gas anddelivers it to Williams’ Hobart Ranch Plant. This four to eight inchdiameter pipeline is approximately 50 miles long and currently has 112wells connected. The properties will be sold through a negotiatedsale, with a data room scheduled to open in August. For furtherinformation contact Clint Wetmore at Madison Energy Advisors,281-876-2244 or check Madison’s web page atwww.MadisonEnergy.com.

Barrett Resources Corp., Denver, CO, unhappy with the bids itreceived, has decided to keep its Gulf of Mexico assets which itput on the market last May. The decision to hold on to theproperties reflects “inadequate purchase offers” and does notchange the company’s plan to focus on its Rocky Mountainproperties. At the same time Barrett’s board of directors voted toincrease the company’s 1999 capital spending by 17%, from $111million, to $130 million. More than 85% of Barrett’s capitalinvestment is directed at the Rocky Mountain region, particularlythe Piceance, Wind River and Power River coal-bed methane basins.

Williams Field Services has filed a complaint with FERC chargingEl Paso Natural Gas with unfairly recovering costs throughtransmission rates of maintaining and operating its Blancocompressor station. Williams maintains the station fails to meetFERC’s “primary function test” and should be reclassified as partof El Paso’s nonjurisdictional gathering system in the San JuanBasin. It said the current classification as part of the company’stransmission system provides a $20 million subsidy annually to ElPaso’s nonjurisdictional field services unit. El Paso has been downthis road before at FERC. GPM Gas Corp. waged a similar battle andwon concerning El Paso’s South Carlesbad compressor, and El Pasocurrently is appealing another 1997 decision reclassifying itsChaco Plant as gathering.

“The facts concerning the Blanco compressor are essentially thesame as those presented in the earlier El Paso misfunctionalizationcases,” said Williams. “The Blanco compressor is located upstreamof a major gas processing plant and compresses gas for threenon-jurisdictional gathering/processing operations.” Williamsrequests the Commission order El Paso to remove the costs of theBlanco compressor from transmission rates. In addition, Williamsmaintains that despite the reclassification of the Chaco plant someChaco facilities still are being recovered in transmission ratesand therefore a remedy for that situation also is required. Itasked the Commission to consolidate these issues with El Paso’scurrent rate case (Docket RP95-363).

In other action FERC approved construction of a one-mile 16-inchdiameter pipeline lateral by Algonquin Gas Transmission that willbe used to deliver 146,000 Dth/d of gas to the proposed Lake RoadGenerating Co. power plant in Windham County, CT. The facilitiesare expected to cost $4.7 million and be placed in service inAugust 2000. The pipeline has been authorized to charge and initialmonthly incremental demand rate of 65 cents/Dth.

Reliant Energy and Walgreen Co. of Deerfield, IL, agreed forReliant to provide gas to 43 Walgreen stores in Massachusetts andConnecticut. The supply agreement runs from Aug. 1, 1999 throughJuly 31, 2001. Other contract terms were not released.

FPL Energy, Inc., and Plumas County, CA, jointly announced aplan to pursue the acquisition of 763 MW of hydroelectricgenerating facilities that are part of the DeSabla Division and arelocated on the Feather River. Under the agreement approved earlierthis week, FPL Energy would partner with Plumas County, which has apopulation of 22,318 and is a three hour drive from Sacramento, inall phases of the acquisition process and, if successful, wouldoperate and maintain the acquired assets. The goal of the plan isto purchase 15 powerhouses and 46 dams located in the Feather RiverSystem. The agreement is contingent upon the assets becomingavailable for purchase through auction or other means from theowner, PG&E. The California legislature is debating whether toallow the transfer or require the assets to be sold. PG&E hasannounced it wants to transfer its 3,890 MW of hydro power plantsto a sister company, an unregulated independent power producer, FPLsaid.

Calpine Corp. of San Jose, CA, said it will buy 18 F-classcombustion turbines from Orlando, FL-based Siemens WestinghousePower Corp. The agreement includes long-term service programs andperformance enhancements on existing equipment. Beginning in 2002,Siemens Westinghouse will deliver six turbines per year to Calpinethrough 2004. “This strategic acquisition will help power Calpine’sactive five-year plan of building a 15,000-MW portfolio ofstate-of-the-art generation,” said Doug Kieta, Calpine senior vicepresident. “In addition, the performance enhancements will furtherimprove our existing operating portfolio across the country.” Atthe same time Calpine announced it has acquired the PowerSuitesoftware technology from Power Factors, Inc. of Fort Collins, CO.Powersuite is a fully integrated, real-time business managementsoftware system. Its decision support capabilities help determinethe most profitable operating configuration for electricalgenerating assets given specific contractual and operatingparameters.

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