PG&E Corp. has hired Credit Suisse First Boston (CS FirstBoston) of Melbourne, Australia, to evaluate various options forall of PG&E’s Australian assets, including a possible sale. Thecompany has made an about-face from aggressive investment inAustralia to continued expansion of its North American assets,particularly power generation in New England and pipeline andtrading operations in Texas. Over the past two years, PG&E haspurchased the 390-mile Queensland Gas Pipeline, running fromWalumbilla (near Roma) to Gladstone and Rockhampton, for US$138million, and planned huge expansion projects, including a proposedAU$30 million extension of the Queensland Pipeline and a AU$1billion, 994-mile gas pipeline project from the North West Shelf tothe South-West of the State. It also has built an activeQueensland-based energy trading business.

The new corporate strategy orchestrated by PG&E Corp. CEORobert Glynn to go domestic and downplay Australia may be behindthe recent shake-up in PG&E’s executive ranks, though aPG&E spokesman denied that was the case. John Jenkins-Stark,former president of PG&E Gas Transmission and senior vicepresident of PG&E Corp. resigned suddenly March 20 and is beingreplaced by the head of PG&E Corp.’s nonutility generatingcompany, US Generating, Joseph P. Kearney, who was president andCEO of US Gen. Jenkins-Stark is the second top PG&E gas man toleave this year. Steve Reynolds, president of Pacific GasTransmission Northwest, left suddenly in January.

Glynn assumed CEO duties last fall and has marked a significantshift of the PG&E Corp. strategy and direction. Natural gasoperations in the U.S. are being reorganized and reoriented.

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