NiSource Inc. has lost another round in its takeover bid forColumbia Energy. A Delaware court judge earlier this week dismissed aNiSource lawsuit aimed at forcing Columbia to reconvene its annualstockholders’ meeting in order to elect a 13th member to the board ofdirectors. NiSource claimed Columbia acted illegally in not fillingthe vacancy at its last annual meeting. NiSource was seeking to electits own representative for Columbia’s board as part of its campaign toannex the Herndon, VA, company through a $68/share hostile takeover. ADelaware Court of Chancery judge said Wednesday he did not believethere was a legal or practical basis for restaging the annualmeeting. NiSource, which made the takeover bid in early June, has twoother lawsuits targeting Columbia still to be decided (See Daily GPI,July 30).

Pioneer Oil and Gas of Salt Lake City, UT, sold several of itsnon-producing assets including its Colorado low BTU gas properties.With proceeds, Pioneer was able to retire all of its $1.33 millionin bank debt and increase working capital by $460,000. PresidentDon J. Colton said, “All of these properties had significant valuebut they required sizable capital investments to realize cash flowfrom them.” Pioneer said it will use sale proceeds and cash flowfrom producing properties to concentrate on oil and gas explorationincluding coalbed methane. Pioneer Oil and Gas trades nationally onthe NASD OTC Bulletin Board with the symbol PIOL. The company has8,135,018 shares outstanding.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. of Calgary appointed Doug Baldwinpresident and CEO. Baldwin had been appointed to interim CEOeffective Aug. 1. Baldwin is a former senior vice president andformer director of Imperial Oil Ltd. He was elected to theTransCanada board April 30 and will continue to serve as a member.He retired from Imperial Oil Dec. 31, 1998 after serving more than40 years.

Information technology consultant SPL WorldGroup Inc. (SPL) ofSan Francisco said Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania and Columbia Gas ofMaryland (CPA and CMD), subsidiaries of Columbia Energy Group,selected SPL to provide customer relationship management software.The new software will allow the company to better understand andanalyze customer energy requirements, track and meet customer needsmore closely and provide more efficient service. The first phase ofthe project will center on deployment of a sales force automationsystem. The software solution, named SMART-sales and marketinganalysis reporting and tracking-is designed, overall, to meet boththe management and accounting needs of companies that deliverenergy products and services. Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania andColumbia Gas of Maryland will be among the first gas utilities touse the system.

Kismet Energy Corp. said after it raises capital it couldparticipate in 13 additional wells in an area where a significantnew gas discovery was recently made at Lake Wells Prospect in theArkoma Basin, OK. Kismet can take between 50 to 70% workinginterest in each of the 13 wells to be drilled in four majorprospects. The wells are to be drilled to a total depth of 5,400feet, and each could be drilled within eight to 10 days. Multiplegas zones (Spiro A, Spiro B, Cromwell, Hunton and Viola) similar tothe first discovery well, John Wells No. 1, are expected to beencountered. Potential reserves associated with the four prospectsare expected to be more than 70 Bcf of gas, producing at expectedinitial rates of about 25 MMcf/d. Based on an average price of$2.50/Mcf, the cash flow net to Kismet is expected to be more than$10.9 million annually. Cash flow can be used to acquire morelow-risk properties, drill additional high-potential wells inCalifornia and pay dividends to shareholders. Kismet is an oil andgas exploration and development company with offices in Alberta,Canada and Bakersfield, CA.

Georgia gas marketer Georgia Natural Gas (GNG) officially openeda customer care center in Kennesaw, GA. The center will serve gascustomers throughout the state. The center, in operation since Aug.1, employs nearly 160 people, including 104 customer servicerepresentatives, to handle calls from GNG customers seekingassistance on establishing service as well as billing inquiries.Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. andSaturday 8 a.m. to noon. GNG serves residential, commercial, andindustrial customers throughout Georgia. GNG is a sister company ofAtlanta Gas Light Co.

Results from a poll taken by the American Gas Association showsAmericans are more confident now about the ability of gas utilitiesto deliver gas reliably during the transition to the new year thanthey were in May. The number of people who believe that there willbe Y2K-related disruptions in their natural gas service has beencut virtually in half, from 19% in May to 10% this month, AGA said.Overall, more than three-fourths (78%) of those surveyed believethat there will be no Y2K-related disruptions to their natural gasservice, the AGA poll found. The poll of 800 registered voters wasconducted by Public Opinion Strategies Sept. 14-19. The resultshave a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46%. In late October, AGAwill release the results of its fourth and final assessment of gasutility readiness for the Year 2000. The AGA represents 189 localgas utilities that serve customers in all 50 states. AGA membersdeliver gas to over 93% of the 60 million U.S. homes and businessesthat use gas.

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