Announced

In an effort to encourage retail stock ownership and improveshare liquidity, the KN Energy board of directors announcedWednesday shareholders of record at the close of business Dec. 15will receive a three-for-two stock split and a 7.1% increase inquarterly dividends. The stock will be distributed and the increasewill be paid concurrently on Dec. 31.

At the end of a very busy week for CMS Energy, the companyannounced it had struck its first deal for a large power plant tobe fed by gas delivered on Panhandle Eastern Pipeline acquired fourdays earlier from Duke Energy.

Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Mobil Exploration &amp ProducingU.S. last week announced they closed an exchange transaction thatwill allow ARCO subsidiary Vastar Resources to boost its gasproduction and reserve activity level in the Gulf of Mexico shelfby one third, and Mobil’s exploration and production arm tosignificantly increase its stake in California oil production. Thedeal closed on Oct. 31st.

The supply-side energy marketer Strategic Energy Ltd. (SEL) andthe demand-side management company Custom Energy LLC (CustomEnergy) announced a merger last week designed to help customerslower energy use and cost.

In a surprise move announced Monday CMS Energy reached southfrom its Michigan distribution base to buy the Panhandle Easternand Trunkline Gas pipeline companies — pipes, storage and LNGterminal — from Duke Energy, solidifying its own supply line tothe Midcontinent and Gulf.

Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Mobil Exploration & ProducingU.S. yesterday announced that they closed an exchange transactionthat will allow ARCO subsidiary Vastar Resources to boost its gasproduction and reserve activity level in the Gulf of Mexico shelfby one third, and Mobil’s exploration and production arm tosignificantly increase its stake in California production. The dealclosed on Oct. 31st.

Williams announced yesterday that its Cherokee expansion projecthas been placed into service, increasing capacity on theTranscontinental system by about 87 MMDth/d to provide additionalannual firm transportation capacity to serve markets in Georgia.

As part of its ongoing quest to comprehensively reform thenatural gas industry, FERC last week announced that it is planninga series of conferences to tackle issues ranging from its proposedcapacity auction to state unbundling to a pre-filing collaborativeprocess for gas pipeline projects.

FERC Chairman James Hoecker yesterday announced that theCommission will hold a conference on Feb. 25 to address therelationship between interstate pipeline competition and retailunbundling at the state level.