PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., through its wholly-owned subsidiary, PanCanadian Energy Services, announced Monday that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Canadian Fertilizers Limited (CFL) for the development of an 85 MW natural gas-fired cogeneration plant to be located at CFL’s nitrogen complex in Medicine Hat, AB. The cogeneration facility will be developed and owned by PanCanadian and will provide steam to CFL. This project was selected by the Province of Alberta’s transmission administrator under the “Location Based Credits Standing Offer” process, which is designed to address transmission constraints with the development of new power generation in southern Alberta. In addition to the CFL project, PanCanadian currently has two natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants under construction. The Cavalier and Balzac plants will each produce 106 MW of power and will be fully operational this year. PanCanadian also owns a 25% interest in a 110 MW cogeneration facility near Kingston, ON.

Empire Energy Corp., based in Overland Park, KS, will merge with Commonwealth Energy Corp. of White Rock, BC. Under plans approved by directors and shareholders of both companies, Empire will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Commonwealth, giving Commonwealth shareholders one share of Empire for every six Commonwealth shares. The transaction, once approved, is expected to close by the middle of June. Empire President Bryan S. Ferguson said the acquisition would give the company a “good acreage position” in the East Texas Basin, Fort Worth Basin and the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. No financial details were disclosed.

Data Return Corp. a global provider of managed hosting services, announced Tuesday that HoustonStreet Exchange, an independent online energy exchange and technology solutions provider, has signed a contract for managed hosting services. Under the agreement, Data Return will deploy and manage the Internet infrastructure to support HoustonStreet’s online energy exchange. “Working with Data Return is critical to our success,” said John Wyman, chief technology officer of HoustonStreet. “Our online exchange is the foundation of our business. With Data Return’s help, we can provide stable, real-time online trading to our customers. The trading community already considers us to have one of the best online energy exchanges, and we are confident that by engaging Data Return’s services and drawing upon their Microsoft expertise, we will be able to provide an even better service to our customers as well as save time and money.” Data Return said by working with it, HoustonStreet’s customers can more easily buy and sell crude oil, refined products or electricity on HoustonStreet.com.

Progress Energy Inc. reported on Tuesday that it has completed construction on two natural gas-fired plants in North Carolina and put them into commercial service just in time before the summer mercury begins its ascent. The two peaking plants, located in Richmond County and Rowan County, account for approximately 1,100 MW, or nearly 10% of Progress’ plant fleet in the Carolinas. The 600 MW Richmond County plant, and the more than 450 MW Rowan County plant will be used as peaking plants for the electricity needs of the region. The Rowan plant receives its natural gas from the Transco mainline, which is located next to the plant, but the Richmond facility required construction of an 84-mile pipeline between Iredell County and the site. Progress Energy subsidiary, North Carolina Natural Gas, finished the Sandhills Pipeline earlier this year. Expansion of the just-completed Richmond facility is already under way, while plans to expand the Rowan plant are currently in the works.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.