Alaska’s North Slope area-wide 2000 lease sale has been put onhold due to the pending merger of BP Amoco and Atlantic RichfieldCo. (ARCO). Alaska Department of Natural Resources CommissionerJohn Shively said, “[T]here are too many uncertainties in futureleaseholdings to proceed with a sale at this time. Until theiraggregate onshore holdings have been reduced to 500,000 acres, asrequired by Alaska law, I believe it will be difficult forprospective bidders to properly evaluate oil and gas opportunitieson the lands we can offer. “Should the merger be finalized by theend of the year, BP-Amoco must make their seismic and well dataavailable for purchase by the end of March. These data shouldincrease the interest in state lease sales. We are tentativelyrescheduling the North Slope sale for late October or earlyNovember of 2000, at which time we intend to include with it thepostponed Beaufort Sea area-wide sale.” The North Slope saleincludes all available state acreage lying north of the UmiatMeridian, between the NPRA and ANWR.

Primary Energy, the NiSource subsidiary dedicated to investingin and managing projects that optimize energy productivity whilereducing operating cost, announced two different cogenerationprojects yesterday. In total Primary Energy has initiated sevenpower plant projects over the past two years. In the first deal,Primary Energy, along with BP Amoco, selected Duke/FluorDaniel toprovide turnkey engineering, procurement and construction servicesfor a 525 MW, gas-fired cogeneration facility at BP Amoco’s WhitingRefinery in Indiana. Construction of the $250 million plant beganthis year, with completion planned for the second quarter of 2001.In the second deal, Primary Energy announced an agreement with LTVSteel Co. to develop, engineer and construct a blast furnacegas-fired cogeneration facility at LTV’s East Chicago plant. Theproject cost is estimated at $60 million and is scheduled forconstruction in the spring of 2000, with completion in late 2001.The plant, to be built at LTV’s Indiana Harbor Works, will generate50 MW primarily from byproduct fuels, but also will utilize somenatural gas.

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