Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. has repurchased $10.5 million principal amount of its 10% senior notes due in 2007 in a private transaction, reducing the principal on the notes to $129.5 million from $140 million. The Irving, TX-based company funded the repurchase with its existing commercial bank line of credit, increased by $12.5 million to $125 million recently. With the repurchase, Magnum Hunter said it expected to achieve interest savings of about $500,000 over the next 12 months. Management had pledged to continue its focus to reduce debt and improve the balance sheet, said CEO Gary C. Evans. He said since the beginning of 2000, Magnum Hunter had improved debt-to-equity to 63% from 82%.

Halliburton Co. said that using advanced technology, it is working to complete the first floating production, storage and off-loading facility (FPSO) to operate in North American waters, which will be part of the Terra Nova oilfield offshore Newfoundland. The FPSO is scheduled to be installed this summer in water depths of 300 feet at the oilfield on the Grand Banks, about 220 miles east-southeast of St. John’s, 22 miles southeast of the Hibernia oilfield. The environmental uniqueness of the Terra Nova location generated several “firsts” and special design and construction considerations because the oilfield is where icebergs are prevalent and sea conditions pose unique challenges to/for marine installation. Consequently, the Terra Nova FPSO is the first one designed to withstand impact with a 100,000 tonne iceberg. The project also is the first to use open glory holes for the subsea equipment. These glory holes put the subsea equipment below seabed level in order to protect them from scouring icebergs. The owners of the Terra Nova development are Petro-Canada (pperator), ExxonMobil Canada, Husky Oil Operations Ltd., Norsk Hydro Canada Oil and Gas Inc., Murphy Oil Company Ltd., Mosbacher Operating Ltd. and Chevron Canada Resources.

Calpine Corp. announced that its Sutter Energy Center, located near Yuba City, is officially up and running. Sutter is the first major combined-cycle facility built in California in over a decade. The facility is providing 540 MW of electricity to California on a 24 hours a day, seven days a week availability. With development efforts beginning in 1996, the plant is the first facility to be licensed by the California Energy Commission since the restructuring of the state’s electric utility market. After approval in the spring of 1999, Calpine began construction in June. Building costs are estimated to be approximately $350 million. During the past several months, the project scheduled two ten-hour shifts, six days a week to get the plant operating as soon as possible in light of the energy crisis in California.

AES Corp. announced that one of its subsidiaries has acquired a majority of the energy assets of Thermo Ecotek Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Thermo Electron Corp. The purchase price for the transaction is $238 million in cash, inclusive of $63 million of closing adjustments for the reimbursement of Thermo Ecotek’s development expenses since September 30, 2000. The transaction does not include the Mountainview, Riverside, and Delano operating facilities which are located in California. Transfer of those assets remains subject to regulatory requirements associated with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review. The 1,056 MW expansion project under construction at the existing Mountainview site was included in Monday’s closing, as was 161 gross MW of operating power assets in the United States, the Czech Republic, and Germany, a natural gas storage project in Colorado, and the 210 MW Lake Worth Generation project in construction in Florida.

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