Agreement

Concluding a four-month process, AGL Resources reported that ithas entered into an agreement with Alliance Data Systems (ADS) tosell Utilipro, Inc. — a customer care and billing serviceprovider for energy marketers in a number of states. The sale comesjust five months after the billing provider was sued for $50million by bankrupt Georgia marketer Peachtree Natural Gas.

UniSource Energy and Betchel Power have entered into anagreement to build two additional coal-fired generation units atTucson Electric Power Co.’s Springerville Generating Station innortheastern Illinois. The companies said they chose to add on totheir current coal plant, instead of building a natural gas plantdue in-part to soaring natural gas prices. Tucson is a subsidiaryof UniSource. The two extra units will double the plants currentcapacity, by adding 760 MW. The first additional unit is expectedto be in service in 2004 with the second following in 2005. “We arecurrently building coal-fired plants in China, Australia, andMississippi, and recently delivered a coal plant in thePhilippines,” said Eric Grenfell, Bechtel Power’s senior vicepresident. “With increased interest in coal due to expectations ofcontinued high natural gas prices in North America, we expect tosee more coal projects such as this one in Springerville.”

Allegheny Technologies Inc. and DukeSolutions signed acomprehensive energy alliance agreement yesterday for long-termenergy supply and demand management. Under terms of the contract,DukeSolutions will help ATI implement company-wide initiatives toreduce domestic energy costs in 12 states.

Independent Cross Timbers Oil Co. is punching up its explorationand production plans in East Texas, announcing an agreement topurchase some of Herd Producing Co.’s gas producing properties inEast Texas and Louisiana for $115 million. The deal includes 500potential drilling locations, with average gross reserve targets of3.5 (2.4 net) Bcf, holding a total resource potential of more than1.2 Tcf.

Conoco Inc. enhanced its natural gas portfolio last week,announcing an agreement to acquire LG&E Energy Corp.’s naturalgas gathering and processing business assets in New Mexico, Texas,Oklahoma and Montana. The deal will make Conoco the second largestnatural gas gatherer in the region, more than doubling its capacityin southeast New Mexico and improving its processing capacity inthe region by 42%.

Independent Cross Timbers Oil Co. is punching up its explorationand production plans in East Texas, announcing an agreement topurchase some of Herd Producing Co.’s gas producing properties inEast Texas and Louisiana for $115 million. The deal includes 500potential drilling locations, with average gross reserve targets of3.5 (2.4 net) Bcf, holding a total resource potential of more than1.2 Tcf.

Conoco Inc. enhanced its natural gas portfolio yesterday,announcing an agreement to acquire LG&E Energy Corp.’s naturalgas gathering and processing business assets in New Mexico, Texas,Oklahoma and Montana. The deal will make Conoco the second largestnatural gas gatherer in the region, more than doubling its capacityin southeast New Mexico and improving its processing capacity inthe region by 42%.

Reliant Services LLC plans to purchase Miller Pipeline Corp., anatural gas distribution contractor, from NiSource Inc. for $68.3million under an agreement announced this week. Reliant is jointlyand equally owned by subsidiaries of Vectren Corp. and CinergyCorp., and the acquisition will expand its utility servicesbusiness, adding underground pipeline construction, replacement andrepair services.

Williams and ONEOK reported yesterday that they have reached atwo-year agreement in which Williams will provide incremental firmtransportation service of 56,200 Dth/d to the Oklahoma Natural Gas(ONG) division of ONEOK.