Added

Peoples Energy added to its Texas exploration and production assets Tuesday, buying interests in five properties in South Texas and the upper Texas Gulf Coast region from a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources for $33 million.

Westar Energy added yet another investigation to its already long list, disclosing in its 10-Q filing Thursday that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to take a closer look at the restatement of the company’s first and second quarter financial results. The company said earlier this month it will restate its quarterly financials to reflect an additional impairment (a charge of $93 million) at Protection One Inc., a home security company in which the Topeka, KS-based company owns an 88% stake (see Power Market Today, Nov. 4). The charge increased its first-half loss to $737.1 million, or $10.31 a share, Westar said.

Less than 24 hours after state regulators gave approval for sale of added storage gas supplies, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility Friday announced an open season Nov. 13-26, 2002, for 8.12 Bcf of supplies in two of its underground storage facilities.

A California state court judge in San Diego Wednesday added to the state energy crisis litigation glut by agreeing that a class action lawsuit against El Paso Corp. and Sempra Energy’s two natural gas utilities can move forward, setting a preliminary trial date of Sept. 4, 2003. At issue are allegations the nation’s largest interstate gas pipeline company and the two Southern California utilities conspired to keep out competing pipelines that would have prevented the severe wholesale gas price spikes at the California-Arizona border in the 2000-2001 time frame.

Williams added another $80 million in cash on Friday to the $3.4 billion in transactions announced earlier last week to resolve its current liquidity crisis and strengthen its finances. The company said it closed the sale of its Kansas Hugoton natural gas gathering system to FrontStreet Hugoton LLC, an affiliate of FrontStreet Partners LLC and GE Structured Finance Group, for $100 million. Williams will net $80 million after purchase price adjustments to reflect current capital obligations assumed by FrontStreet and net revenues from prior periods.

The supply side of the Canadian natural gas industry added a key ally in its fight against proposals to restricting gas exports to the U.S. Northeast. Despite losing a pipeline project because of producer determination to dedicate Nova Scotia production to U.S. markets, Enbridge Inc. has come out on the side of producers in a battle against a new appeal from the New Brunswick government for intervention at the National Energy Board. The province is demanding rights to review and potentially block all natural gas export transactions.

Sticking to its outlined schedule, Florida Gas Transmission Co. (FGT) has placed in service the second stage of its four-stage Phase V Expansion project. The second stage of Phase V added approximately 64 miles of underground natural gas pipeline, increased compression by approximately 103,000 hp at new or existing compressor stations, and provided 298 MMcf/d of additional transportation capacity.

Coming off of a fourth quarter in which it achieved its targeted annual production rate growth of 17%, Phillips Petroleum Co. added 433 MMboe, net of sales, to its worldwide proved reserves in 2001, replacing 135% of its 2001 worldwide oil and gas production.

Coming off of a fourth quarter in which it achieved its targeted annual production rate growth of 17%, Phillips Petroleum Co. added 433 MMboe, net of sales, to its worldwide proved reserves in 2001, replacing 135% of its 2001 worldwide oil and gas production.