Announcement

President Clinton’s announcement Friday of a ban on new roads,logging and other activities on more than one-fourth of allfederally owned lands will put quite a dent in the futureexploration and production of natural gas in the United States, gasproducers indicated.

In the second announcement this month about expanding pipeline capacity for the growing and hungry gas-fired power generation market in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, Duke Energy Gas Transmission said it plans to extend its East Tennessee Natural Gas System with a 95-mile extension from Virginia into North Carolina.

In the second announcement this month about expanding pipelinecapacity for the growing and hungry gas-fired power generationmarket in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, Duke Energy GasTransmission said it plans to extend its East Tennessee Natural GasSystem with a 95-mile extension from Virginia into North Carolina.

Producers are in for a very profitable year if recent third quarterearnings reports are any indication. Following on EOG’s announcementTuesday of a 250% earnings hike, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy)Wednesday reported a three-fold increase in third quarter earningscompared to the same period last year, going from $126 million ($0.35per share) in 3Q99 to $402 million ($1.09 per share) in 3Q2000 (seeDaily GPI, Oct. 18).

The Williams Companies Inc. made clear its plans to be a seriouscontender in the Canadian midstream market with an announcementlast week that it has reached an agreement to buy most ofTransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s remaining ownership interests innatural gas liquids (NGL) and extraction facilities and oneprocessing plant, as well as a one-third interest in a keyAlberta-to-U.S. gas liquids pipeline from Dow Chemical Co.

The Williams Companies Inc. made clear its plans to be a seriouscontender in the Canadian midstream market with an announcementyesterday that it has reached an agreement to buy most ofTransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s remaining ownership interests innatural gas liquids (NGL) and extraction facilities and oneprocessing plant, as well as a one-third interest in a keyAlberta-to-U.S. gas liquids pipeline from Dow Chemical Co.

Enron Energy Services continues its quest to shore up energymanagement agreements with as many customers as it can. On theheels of an announcement Tuesday that it had signed a 10-yearagreement with Prudential Insurance of America, the Enron Corp.subsidiary announced Wednesday that it had pocketed a $1 billion,10-year energy agreement with the U.S. facilities of QuebecorWorld, the world’s largest commercial printer. The agreementexpands Enron’s original $250 million five-year contract with WorldColor Press, signed in 1998. World Color Press was purchased byQuebecor Printing Inc. last August.

PG&E Energy Services all but completed its exit from theunregulated energy commodity and related services businesses withthe announcement last week it has sold its remaining servicecontracts and related assets to a unit of Chevron Corp. Thecontracts cover commercial, industrial and institutional customersspread around the country. The two San Francisco-based companieswould not disclose terms of the deal, but said it is expected toclose in mid-July.

PG&E Energy Services all but completed its exit from theunregulated energy commodity and related services businesses withthe announcement Thursday that it has sold its remaining servicecontracts and related assets to a unit of Chevron Corp. Thecontracts cover commercial, industrial and institutional customersspread around the country. The two San Francisco-based companieswould not disclose terms of the deal, but said it is expected toclose in mid-July.