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Italy’s Eni SpA said Friday that it has acquired 104 exploration leases in northern Alaska from Armstrong Oil & Gas for an undisclosed amount. The portfolio, located both onshore and offshore in the Beaufort Sea along the Barrow Arch in the North Slope, includes two projects in the predevelopment stage and several defined exploration prospects, the producer said.

In another sign PG&E has fully cleared its post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy, utility officials lowered the amount of the energy recovery bonds that will be sold later this year by more than $300 million, meaning they will total about $800 million rather than the previously estimated $1.1 billion. A series of settlements of suppliers’ outstanding claims against the utility has permitted the reduction.

Despite having already lost or being about to lose a significant amount of power generation load for air conditioning in key market areas, the cash market was able to ride a prior-day screen advance of 14.1 cents along with whatever cooling load will remain Thursday to mostly moderate gains at a majority of points on Wednesday.

A great deal of cooling load across the southern tier of states combined with a moderate amount of heating load in the Northeast and (to a lesser degree) Midwest to produce rising prices at nearly all points Tuesday. A 6.4-cent screen gain the day before added a little extra impetus to the bullish cash market.

Improvements in gathering and processing, mainly in the Williston Basin, should help offset the impact of having a significant amount of firm transportation capacity on Northern Border Pipeline uncontracted this year, Northern Border Partners reported on Wednesday. The company said it expects the market conditions that led to the 600 MMcf/d of uncontracted capacity, or one-quarter of its total pipeline capacity, in April to continue through the second quarter, possibly longer. As a result, it lowered its 2005 earnings guidance by about 4%.

Improvements in gathering and processing, mainly in the Williston Basin, should help offset the impact of having a significant amount of firm transportation capacity on Northern Border Pipeline uncontracted this year, Northern Border Partners reported on Wednesday.

The cash market added the previous day’s 11.2-cent screen gain to the modest amount of heating load it is experiencing and got the sum of rising prices Tuesday. Rockies/Pacific Northwest/San Juan quotes tended to lead other market areas in achieving overall increases ranging about a nickel to nearly a quarter.

AGL Resources subsidiary Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) has issued a request for bids to contract for incremental, 10-day firm natural gas peaking service in the amount of 68,000 dth/d on its Georgia system. AGL launched the request for bids as a result of the Georgia Public Service Commission’s Oct. 26, 2004 order regarding the company’s 2004-2007 capacity supply plan. Terms of the two-year contract will commence Nov. 1, 2005. For more information on terms and conditions of the bid as well as for bid forms, contact Tim Kennedy, senior analyst, capacity planning, at (404) 584-3290 or tkennedy@aglresources.com. AGL provides delivery service to more than 1.5 million customers in Georgia.

Starting Friday, Panhandle Eastern will limit deliveries under Rate Schedules EFT and EIT during any hour of the gas day to one-sixteenth of the amount nominated at the delivery point. Enforcement of this tariff provision is a result of the extreme cold weather and will continue until Jan. 19 or until pipeline conditions allow the restriction to be lifted, Panhandle Eastern said. In addition, Rate Schedule FT and IT flows will be limited during any hour of the gas day to one-twenty-fourth of the gas nominated at the delivery point.