Adding

Planning on growth of 20 to 30% to its Houston workforce by2001, Enron announced plans for a 40-story office tower on adowntown Houston city block adjacent to its existing 50-storytower. “In the past three years, we have experienced annualemployment growth of about 10%, and we expect this to continue intothe next century due to the strength of all our businesses,” saidCEO Kenneth L. Lay. “This new world-class building will allow us tobring in the latest technologies to support our businesses, and itwill assist us in recruiting and retaining the best and thebrightest employees.”

Adding to double-digit gains achieved Wednesday, the futuresmarket plodded higher Thursday when short-covering activity boostedprices in light, pre-holiday trading. The move left February with atwo-day gain of 16.4 cents, a feat January could not muster duringits entire reign as prompt month.

The futures market experienced heavy expiration-day lossesyesterday, adding to price erosion that occurred Tuesday. Novemberwas particularly hard hit, slipping 13.6 cents to settle at $1.972.Weak October cash prices and follow-through selling by traders whohave elected to ignore and discount the threat of Hurricane Mitchwere reasons cited for the decline. Trading was active, with nearly150,000 contracts changing hands.

Midland, TX-based Clayton Williams Energy Inc. will acquire morethan 65 Bcf of gas equivalent reserves in east Texas from SonatExploration Co. The company executed a purchase and sale agreementwith Sonat to acquire the assets for about $46.5 million. Thetransaction is effective April 1. The assets are concentrated inthree east Texas fields and consist mainly of long-life gasreserves with significant potential for behind-pipe re-completionsand developmental drilling. Clayton Williams will assume operationson substantially all of the acquired properties at closing,expected to occur by Nov. 20.

Futures came under heavy follow-through selling pressure fromall segments of the market Friday, adding to a 14-cent lossregistered Thursday. Sources pointed to a weak cash market, whichwas joined by fresh bearish technicals late last week, as reasonsfor the decline. The November contract gapped lower Friday andtrended mostly lower throughout the session to settle at $2.191, a6.3 cent decline.

The futures market came under heavy selling pressure earlyThursday, adding to losses that began in the Wednesday eveningAccess session. However, the October contract was unable to broachsupport at $2.075, and buying enabled the prompt month to recoverslightly in the afternoon. October ended the day down 10.3 cents at$2.138.

The futures market continued to spike higher at Nymex yesterday,adding to advances that have lifted the October contract 36.3 centssince last week. October finished the day up 11.8 cents to settleat $2.241. In doing so, natural gas futures set a new daily volumerecord with an estimated 142,867 contracts changing hands.

The futures market spiked higher in trading Thursday, adding togains posted Wednesday evening as traders pointed to a host ofbullish factors. A “startling storage report,” continuedshort-covering, and a increasing supportive technical picture wereall cited as reasons for the advance. That prompted both theOctober and November contract to 12.5-cent gains, settling at$1.958 and $2.207 respectively.

Foothills Pipe Lines Ltd. has joined as a sponsor of the AlaskaNorth Slope Gas Project, adding its pipeline expertise to the mixwhich includes producers and a marketer behind the multi-billiondollar project to carry North Slope gas to the Alaskan coast,liquefy it and ship the LNG to Pacific Rim markets.