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Piedmont Natural Gas boosted its customer service base in North Carolina, by agreeing to a two-part deal on Thursday that includes the stock purchase of North Carolina Natural Gas (NCNG), a distribution subsidiary of Progress Energy, and Progress Energy’s investment in EasternNC, a gas delivery service, for approximately $425 million in cash. The acquisition includes the 176,000 NCNG residential, commercial and industrial natural gas customers in eastern and southern North Carolina, giving Piedmont more than 454,000 customers in the state, and a total of 901,000 customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

AltaCanada Energy Corp. said as of July 1, 2002, its established reserve base of crude oil and natural gas (proven plus one-half probable), including its 74% share of Alberta Selecta, is 1,184,000 boe. Of that, natural gas accounted for 64% of the total, while oil and liquids comprised 36%. Of the established reserves, 82% were classified as proven. AltaCanada contracted Gilbert Laustsen Jung Associates Ltd. (GLJ) of Calgary to prepare the reserves report. The initial report came out on Jan. 1, 2002. The report covers all of AltaCanada’s assets, including that of Alberta Selecta Corp., AltaCanada’s recently purchased 74% owned subsidiary, net of the property disposition announced on Aug. 12. Of those reserves, the company said it has 5,380 MMcf of proved and probable natural gas reserves and 1,396 mboe of proved and probable oil and liquid reserves. AltaCanada added that it has total proved producing reserves of 2,452 MMcf of gas and 763 Mboe of oil and liquids. The company said the discounted net present value of its reserves were estimated using average prices during the last six months of 2002 of C$3.92/Mcf of gas and C$29.25/bbl, and escalated according to GLJ’s July 2002 price forecast. The reserve life of AltaCanada’s proved and established reserves is 7.4 years and 8.7 years respectively.

FERC last Wednesday rejected assertions made by a collection of generators that Entergy Corp. has effectively hindered wholesale competition by preventing independent power producers (IPPs) from being able to self-supply their imbalance requirements in a fashion similar to what Entergy does for its own generation resources.

Enterprise Products Partners LP became one of the largest liquids storage operators in the country with the acquisition of a natural gas liquids and petrochemical liquids storage business from Diamond-Koch, L.P. and Diamond-Koch III, which are owned by affiliates of Valero Energy and Koch Industries Inc. The purchase price was $129 million in cash.

California’s second merchant underground natural gas storage project prepares to start up commercial operations this week at Lodi, CA, about 50 miles south of Sacramento, but backers at Houston-based Western Hub Properties still face two pieces of unfinished business.

California’s second merchant underground natural gas storage project prepares to start up commercial operations the week of Dec. 17 at Lodi, CA, about 50 miles south of Sacramento, but it backers at Houston-based Western Hub Properties still face two pieces of unfinished business.

The big rallies that had developed late in Friday’s trading for the weekend provided a solid base for spectacular price increases Monday. Gains of about 30 cents or more were common in the East, while the West, where winter storm watches were posted for parts of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, registered upticks that exceeded 40 cents in most cases.

Pending a major change in direction at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), natural gas investors could get an unwanted “coal-inscopy” next month, according to analyst Fred Schultz of Raymond James & Associates Inc. Coal-fired electric generation in the country could expand by up to 40,000 MW.

With an 8.2 cent rebound on Friday to $3.218, August natural gas futures appeared to be taking their sweet time dropping below the $3 level, contrary to what many observers had expected. Although it will be extremely difficult for futures to shake the bearish trend with gas storage levels mounting at a record pace and cool weather across the Northeast, the trading activity on Friday looked suspiciously like a potential floor developing above the $3 mark, according to market analysts.