Additions

Thursday, it was deja vu all over again for both majors and independents reporting fourth quarter earnings. For the majors, Phillips Petroleum Co. and its merger partner Conoco both reported earnings declines for the final quarter of the year, while independent Houston Exploration Co. also saw earnings fall despite record production figures.

While it will take another two years for a Mackenzie Valley production and pipeline project to come together, there are signs that a safety margin is developing in Canadian natural gas supplies. Western Canada’s established, heavily exploited gas fields can still deliver production growth for years to come, the National Energy Board has been told.

Atmos Energy Corp.’s nonutility holding Co. Atmos Energy Holdings Inc., has bought some Kentucky-based market area storage facilities and associated pipeline assets for $13 million in cash. The assets will be utilized by subsidiary Woodward Marketing LLC, which also recently expanded its operations though the $3 million purchase of Innovative Gas Services Inc. (IGS) and the common stock of Southern Resources Inc.

Atmos announced plans to acquire the East Diamond Storage Field and pipeline facility assets in July. The storage field contains 1.8 Bcf of working gas capacity and has deliverability of about 20 MMcf/d.

Operating on the premise that a little here and a little there adds up to a fully functioning delivery system, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved three expansion projects last Wednesday in the Southeast, Midwest and Northeast.

Operating on the premise that a little here and a little there adds up to a fully functioning delivery system, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved three expansion projects Wednesday in the Southeast, Midwest and Northeast.

CMS Marketing, Services and Trading, (CMS-MST) has madesignificant additions to its energy services operations recently,signing a five-year energy management agreement with Chicago-basedBank One Corp. last week and expanding its national presencethrough the purchase of Viron Corp. from York International in lateSeptember.

Enron Oil & Gas Co. said it expects 1998 all-sources netproved reserve additions of more than 1.6 Tcfe, resulting in areserve replacement ratio greater than 375%. The company’s 1998production is estimated to be 420 Bcfe, and 1998 average unitfinding cost is anticipated to be below 50 cents/Mcfe. Of thereserves added in 1998, about 800 Bcfe were added in Trinidad,300Bcfe in India and 500 Bcfe in North America.

TransCanada PipeLines will be continuing its steady pace ofexpansions with a $984 million construction program in 1999 to add275 MMcf/d in delivery capacity to eastern Canada and the U.S.Midwest and Northeast.