Announcement

On the heels of the announcement that it had acquired a majority of TransCanada’s natural gas marketing business (see related story this issue), Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. reported that it has made its first production acquisition by purchasing interests in 18 natural gas and oil producing fields as well as 206,000 acres of mineral rights in South Louisiana from Castex Energy Inc. for approximately $162 million.

On the heels of the announcement that it had acquired a majority of TransCanada’s natural gas marketing business (see related story this issue), Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. reported that it has entered the production business by purchasing interest in 18 natural gas and oil producing fields as well as 206,000 acres of mineral rights in South Louisiana from Castex Energy Inc. for approximately $162 million.

Oregon’s largest natural gas utility and electric power utility have come together with the announcement Monday that Northwest Natural Gas will buy Portland General Electric (PGE) for $1.875 billion. Under terms of the transaction, expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2002, Natural will pay $1.55 billion in cash, give up $200 billion in preferred stock, $50 million in Natural common stock, and assume Enron’s $75 million balance in customer benefits obligations, stipulated in its 1996 PGE purchase. Natural also will assume almost $1.1 billion in PGE debt and preferred stock.

On the heels of the SCANA Corp. announcement made last week announcing the formation of its SCG Pipeline Inc. subsidiary, South Carolina Pipeline Corp., another SCANA subsidiary, reported on Tuesday that it intends to extend its existing facilities to interconnect with the proposed SCG Pipeline to gain access to additional supplies of natural gas.

As part of another glowing quarterly earnings announcement last Thursday, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. said it will be making future merchant power plant investments in California, while outlining an aggressive hedging strategy for the company that is centered on an internal trading operation that has grown to more than 200 people in the past two years.

Just 17 months after announcement of merger plans,Minneapolis-based Northern States Power and Denver-based NewCentury Energies have cleared the last hurdle to combine under thenew name Xcel Energy Inc. The merger creates one of the 10 largestelectricity and natural gas companies in the United States.

Natural gas futures spiraled lower into the close Wednesday afternoon, following the announcement that a whopping 102 Bcf was added to underground storage facilities last week. At the close, the prompt June contract was 15.8 cents lower at $4.483, more than 22% percent down from the $5.78 notched a little over a month ago.

While the California governor’s press people were promising anannouncement and then reneging late Thursday afternoon, at leastone other power supplier, Williams, announced signing a 10-year,1,400-MW deal with the state water resources department (DWR).Meanwhile, supply shortages eased considerably yesterday for thefirst time in about six weeks.

The Bush White House tapped Commissioner Curt L. Hebert Jr. asits chairman, according to an announcement by the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission yesterday.