Lafayette, LA-based Stone Energy Corp. has agreed to buy a “number” of oil and gas properties in its core of operations, the Gulf of Mexico, for about $300 million. No exact details were released. The independent said that a “substantial portion of the offered price” is attributed to properties “subject to elections by third party working interest owners to exercise their preferential rights.” Stone expects to finance the transaction through a combination of borrowings under its credit facility and other long-term debt instruments, and expect to close before the end of this year. Merrill Lynch is acting as financial adviser.

Sempra Fiber Links, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, announced the first installation of fiber-optic cable in live natural gas distribution lines. The new fiber line has been installed in a portion of the service territory of Frontier Energy, a natural gas distribution utility in North Carolina. Sempra Fiber Links has invented a patent-pending process to place fiber-optic cables into the existing infrastructure of natural gas pipelines. It recently began marketing the process to gas utility companies across North America. Frontier Energy, which is also a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, is the first natural gas distribution company to use the fiber-in-gas technology. The newly installed fiber-optic line covers about a one-mile span and serves as a showcase site for interested parties to view the fiber conduit in live gas lines. The fiber-in-gas process does not require street trenching in the manner of traditional laying of fiber and for that reason it is quicker and costs less to install, and is less disruptive to traffic and urban-planning schemes.

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