Alberta

Apache Corp. made a definitive agreement to acquire producingproperties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia andSaskatchewan, Canada with proved reserves of 87.5 MMBoe from ShellCanada Limited for C$770 million (US$524 million at currentexchange rates).

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, completedEnerg¡a Mayakan, a $266 million, 435-mile gas pipeline in Mexico’sYucatan peninsula. The pipeline is expected to go into commercialoperation by the end of September.

The “buy Canadian” bug reached Fort Worth, TX-based QuicksilverResources yesterday as it announced the purchase of controllinginterest in Alberta-based MGV Energy. No terms of the transactionwere disclosed. MGV currently produces 1.2 MMcf/d and has 5 Bcf ofproven producing reserves. The move gives Quicksilver, whichproduces over 50 MMcf/d from developments in Montana, Michigan,Wyoming and Texas, a Canadian presence. “This is the first of manysteps we will undertake in Canada,” said Porter Farrell, aQuicksilver spokesman. “We’ve been very aggressive in establishinga core area up there and are intent on growing it.”

NOVA said a leak discovered in a flange assembly early Thursdayon its North Lateral in eastern Alberta is curtailing up to 500MMcf/d of upstream production. The line usually flows 1.6-1.7Bcf/d, a spokesman said. He estimated the leak will require 24-48hours of repair time, but no schedule has been set.

Calgary-based TransCanada Gas Processing Ltd., the generalpartner of TransCanada Gas Processing LP, said processing volumesat the Cutbank Joule-Thompson (J-T) plant have increasedsignificantly since operations began last month due to tie-in ofChevron Canada Resources production four months ahead of schedule.

NOVA restored its 16-inch Josephine Lateral in northwest Albertato service Saturday evening following a rupture caused bythird-party construction. The outage was isolated to a 7-kilometersection of the NPS 16 Josephine Lateral Loop about 30 kilometersnorth of Saddle Hills Compressor Station, NOVA said. The pipelinechanged its daily system imbalance tolerance to -2/+18% due to lowlinepack Saturday morning.

Cold weather helped many Western points avoid the prices dropsin the East that generally ranged from a nickel to 15 centsTuesday. It was snowing Monday and Tuesday in the Salt Lake Cityarea and that is expected to continue today, a trader told DailyGPI. Only the Southwest basins and Waha were left out of the West’sfirmness, likely because they were getting no demand support at allfrom intrastate Texas and Midwest markets, sources said.

Prices for the last day of February were mostly softer Friday,but quotes for the Southwest basins, Rockies and intra-Albertareflected flatness. And Canadian exports into Northwest at Sumas,which had been languishing in the low to mid $1.10s at the start ofthe week, climbed to the $1.30 area. The big exception to Westernfirmness was a fall of about a dime at the Southern Californiaborder in wide-ranging numbers.