A Georgia bankruptcy court named Shell Energy Services thewinning bidder for Peachtree Natural Gas’ customers yesterday.Shell’s bid of $19.3 million beat out the only other companyinvolved in the bidding, Georgia Natural Gas Services.

As it currently stands, the parties are aiming to do the 170,000customer transfer on Nov. 29. The agreement is not final and itstill needs to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)under the Hart Scott Rodino Act. Because of the uncertainty as towhen the FTC will approve the transaction, the date whenPeachtree’s customer accounts will switch to Shell can not bepinned down, a source told NGI.

Until the switch, Peachtree will continue its process ofsupplying gas to its customers by paying fees to Atlanta Gas Lightat an “as you go along” basis (see Daily GPI, Nov. 1).

“We’re happy with the settlement,” said Millicent Hunter, an AGLspokeswoman. “Based on the price and the way the sale isstructured, it looks like we’ll be made whole.”

By acquiring Peachtree’s customers, Shell will acquire over 10%of the market share in the state, increasing the company’s overallmarket share to more than 20%. While the move places Shell solidlyin third place among Georgia marketers in terms of customer base,it will still significantly trail the more than 30% market shareheld by both Scana and Georgia Natural Gas.

Interestingly, Scana did not submit a bid yesterday, afterasking the court for more time earlier in the week so that it couldorganize an offer. “We were present for the bidding,” said RogerSchrum, a Scana spokesman. “But when the minimum bid came in, itwas beyond the threshold of what we had in mind. To that end, weare happy that we did not win the customers at that price. Scana isstill firmly entrenched as the No. 2 marketer in the state, andjust recently we have seen our sign ups increase dramatically.”

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