Announced

SCANA Corp. announced it is refocusing its marketing strategy onthe retail business in the Southeast and is shutting down itsHouston office and its wholesale gas marketing operation. Thecompany would not say how much natural gas its wholesale operationhandles on a daily basis.

FERC announced it will sponsor a technical conference next monthon the issue of Y2K readiness in the energy industry. It will beheld Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. at the Commission’s Washington headquarters.

SCANA Corp. announced it is refocusing its marketing strategy onthe retail business in the Southeast and is shutting down itsHouston office and its wholesale gas marketing operation. Thecompany would not say how much natural gas its wholesale operationhandles on a daily basis.

None of Williams’ three main subsidiaries matched 1997 earningslevels, the company said Thursday, as it announced a total 1998 netincome of $140.7 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, down from$368.3 million, or $0.85 per diluted share in 1997. For the fourthquarter, Williams posted a net loss of $20.2 million or $0.05 perdiluted share versus a net income of $57.5 million or $0.13 perdiluted share in 1997. Company officials blamed poor marketconditions, large accrual and impairment amounts, and disappointingresults in the communications business as reasons for the poorperformance.

Despite the warmest year since 1921 in Michigan and a poorfourth quarter, CMS Energy announced a growth in net income to $284million, or $2.65 per share, in 1998 from $244 million, or $2.39per share, in 1997. The company credited improvements in both itsutility and international energy businesses as reasons for thegrowth.

In an effort to boost liquidity at trading points, theindustry’s two major electronic energy trading systems, AltraStreamline and QuickTrade, announced last week they will become onesystem by the end of the year, possibly sooner. Altra is buyingQuickTrade and QuickTrade Canada from subsidiaries of Dynegy,Sempra Energy and Nicor for an undisclosed sum.

Evergreen Resources, Inc. announced Thursday the acquisition of41,000 gross Raton Basin acres from Infinity Inc. affiliate, CISOil and Gas, for $8.5 million. Evergreen estimates this additionwill increase its coal-bed methane proved net gas reserves by 22.5Bcf. The company now holds working majority interest in 200,000acres in the basin. The effective date of the transaction was Dec.31, 1998.

With incentives to ink a national contract later in the year,Sempra Energy Solutions has announced a “multi-million-dollar,one-year” energy services contract for the California operations ofPETCO Animal Supplies Inc., one of the leading national pet foodand supplies retailers with about $750 million in annual revenues(1997). Both Sempra and PETCO are headquartered in San Diego. Nationally, PETCO’s annual electricity bill alone exceeds $10million, according to Ken Moss, energy manager for the pet supplychain, which is rapidly expanding with new, larger(15,000-square-foot) retail outlets that now cover 36 states, withenergy coming from more than 100 different gas and electricdistribution utilities. Natural gas nationally accounts for about10% of the chain’s annual energy load. Water is a much smallerportion, Moss said.

Miller Petroleum Inc. announced Monday that it finished thetransportation system for what it calls the first commercialcoalbed methane project in Kentucky. The Huntsville,Tennessee-based company completed and started service on a 4.5mile, six-inch pipeline extension that draws 200-220 Mcf/d fromfour coalbed methane wells located in southeastern Kentucky. Thegas, which the company said rates 980 Btu/Mcf, will be injectedinto the Columbia pipeline system and sold by a third party. Fortymore wells are scheduled to be drilled on this site in 1999. Thecompany estimates the finding cost for the project to average$.35/Mcf.