Hanover Compressor completed its acquisition of Stewart &Stevenson Services’s natural gas compressor leasing business, anestablished market leader in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, for$60 million in cash and notes. Under terms of the agreement,Hanover will purchase gas compression equipment and related supportfrom Stewart & Stevenson, and Stewart & Stevenson willrefer subsequent compression leasing business to Hanover. “Theacquisition of Stewart & Stevenson’s PAMCO ServicesInternational (PSI) unit is another step in our strategic plan toextend Hanover’s leadership of the compression rental servicesmarket,” said Hanover CEO Michael J. McGhan. “This acquisition addsoutstanding personnel and equipment to Hanover’s existingoperations and establishes for our Company a major base ofoperations in the rapidly growing Powder River Basin of Wyoming,one of the major coal-bed methane-producing regions of the U.S.”

Dynegy and NRG Energy completed a 100 MW expansion of the RockyRoad Power Plant, a gas-fired peaking facility in East Dundee, IL.The installation of an additional 100 MW turbine increases thefacility’s generating capacity to a nominal 350 MW. “The expansionof the Rocky Road Power Plant, which was in direct response to openmarket forces, pricing signals during the last two summers andcritical wholesale market demand in the Midwest, will enable us toprovide solutions to a constrained electrical system,” said DynegyCOO Steve Bergstrom. The first phase of the plant began commercialoperation on June 30, 1999. NRG acquired a 50% interest inDecember, making it the third asset alliance between the twocompanies. The expansion of the Rocky Road plant is the second ofDynegy’s three new generation projects coming on line this summer,totaling 1,055 MW of gross capacity. It began commercial operationat the Calcasieu project near Lake Charles, LA, on May 31, and isscheduled to start up the Rockingham plant in Rockingham County,NC, this month.

Houston-based El Paso Energy Partners LP yesterday said it willpay $170 million in partnership preference units to buy two gasstorage subsidiaries of Crystal Gas Storage Inc., a division ofparent El Paso Energy Corp. El Paso Energy Partners, which is 35%owned by El Paso Energy Corp., said the preference units will beused to pay for two natural gas storage facilities in Hattiesburg,MS, and they will be non-voting. The units will accrue dividends atan annual rate of 10%, and will not require payment of cashdistributions until 2010. The deal is expected to close in thethird quarter. Crystal Gas was acquired in October 1999 by El PasoEnergy Corp. (see Daily GPI, Oct. 18, 1999).

Unocal Corp.’s Spirit Energy 76 unit has reached an agreementwith Mad Dog field owners that creates a 15.6% working interest forUnocal for an expanded area covering the entire Mad Dog field inthe deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Before the revised equitydistribution, Unocal held a 25% working interest in the original 2« block unit, covering Green Canyon blocks 825, 826 and thesouthern half of block 782. The agreement also expands Mad Dogfield to include Green Canyon blocks 738, 739, 781, 783, 827 andthe northern half of block 782. Additional appraisal drilling isplanned. BP Amoco is operator. Unocal announced its initial oildiscovery there on April 12, 1999, calling Mad Dog a discovery thatcould represent a “trend opening” discovery for the deepwater foldbelt subsalt play where the company has significant interests.Unocal is headquartered in Sugar Land, TX.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.