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FERC on Friday approved an offer of settlement that calls for Williams Cos. Inc. to pay California’s three largest utilities approximately $140 million to resolve claims and refunds arising from the company’s sale of electricity and natural gas into the state during the market crisis of 2000-2001.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. last week doubled the amount of oil and natural gas properties it holds in its successful onshore core region of southeastern New Mexico with a $243 million purchase from EnCana Corp., which obtained the properties through its acquisition with Tom Brown Inc. The properties represent a 72% increase to Magnum Hunter’s existing 32 MMcfe/d of production from existing properties in New Mexico and approximately 11% of its current total net daily production.

In its second announced transaction in two days, TXU Corp. on Friday agreed to sell Oncor Utility Solutions, its consulting and asset management business, to UMS Group, a global utility consulting company headquartered in Parsippany, NJ. Financial details were not disclosed.

Due to an excessive amount of liquids received at the Tivoli Plant onshore Texas Sunday morning, the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System was shut in that day and all receipts and deliveries were scheduled to zero. Return to service is expected by Tuesday, MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas said; it had expected to finish a scheduled pigging project Sunday (see Daily GPI, Dec. 18). Florida Gas Transmission took its scheduled deliveries from MOPS at their interconnect in Matagorda County, TX to zero for Sunday’s gas day and until further notice.

Scana Energy announced a definitive agreement Thursday to acquire Energy America LLC’s 50,000 customers in the Georgia for an undisclosed amount. With this transaction, Scana’s total customer base will increase to more than 450,000 in Georgia, which represents about 30% of the 1.5 million customers in the state’s natural gas market.

On Friday and Monday the cash market had a fair amount of higher points mixed into an overall falling trend. But continuing weak fundamentals finally united the entire market in southward movement Tuesday, although just barely in one or two cases.

El Paso Natural Gas Co. last week purchased Copper Eagle Gas Storage LLC for an undisclosed amount. Copper Eagle was set up two years ago as a joint effort by El Paso Corp. affiliate Crystal Gas Storage Inc. and Pinnacle West Energy, and it now is moving forward on its second attempt to become the Phoenix area’s first natural gas storage project (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19: Oct. 16, 2001).

El Paso Natural Gas Co. said Tuesday it had purchased Copper Eagle Gas Storage LLC for an undisclosed amount. Copper Eagle was set up two years ago as a joint effort by El Paso Corp. affiliate Crystal Gas Storage Inc. and Pinnacle West Energy, and it now is moving forward on its second attempt to become the Phoenix area’s first natural gas storage project (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19; Oct. 16, 2001).

In another case inspired by the added information flowing from ongoing federal and state investigations, Reliant Energy and others were targeted last week in a Los Angeles law firm’s class action lawsuit , alleging a “massive conspiracy” to manipulate wholesale natural gas prices through bankrupt Enron Corp.’s now-defunct online energy trading operation.