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A Houston-based producer summarized his gas market outlookWednesday: “It’s pretty ugly for August, even uglier forSeptember.” Although end-users might consider the picture moreattractive, all could agree that prices were dropping for bothincremental August and September bidweek business.

Two Canadian energy retailers soon will be served byAtlanta-based Utilipro Inc., provider of customer care solutions.Utilipro recently signed a letter of intent with Direct EnergyMarketing Limited (DEML), Canada’s largest independent gasmarketer, and Apollo Gas Inc. (AGI), a subsidiary of Apollo GasIncome Fund, to directly bill customers for gas and energy-relatedservices.

Dynegy Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Houston-based Dynegy Inc.,announced Friday it has acquired the midstream gas processingfacilities and gathering lines of Compton Petroleum Corp. for anestimated $39 million.

Barrett Resources Corp., a Denver-based independent producer,reported that a major well blowout that erupted early Thursday mayhave been caused by “downhole casing failure due to extendedexposure to high pressure.”

Texas-based Panda Energy International plans to construct a $100million, 750 MW gas-fired merchant power plant in Guadalupe Countynear Marion, TX. The maximum amount of gas the plant could use is126,000 MMBtu/d.

Union Pacific Fuels and three Wichita, KS-based affiliates ofKoch Industries exchanged certain gas and gas liquids assets inEast Texas and Southern Louisiana. The Koch companies will receivea portion of Union Pacific’s interest in the Panola Pipeline, whichruns from Carthage, TX, to Mont Belvieu, TX. In addition, the Kochcompanies will receive Union Pacific’s interest in the Mont BelvieuI fractionator as well as the Patterson and Calumet gas plants inSouthern Louisiana.

QuickTrade released the first commercial Internet-basedelectronic power trading system this week. Streamline, its biggestcompetitor, is expected to follow suit over the next few months.The QuickTrade system is equipped to handle forward trades at 13hub locations across the U.S. and one in Canada, and so far hasattracted the interest of about 35 traders, 20 of which have signedup to begin utilizing the system.

NorAm Interstate Pipelines bought the intrastate Illini Pipelinefrom Houston-based Nuevo Energy Co. Illini Pipeline operates insouth central Illinois, serving customers in the East St. Louismetropolitan area. The line is about 70 miles long and has capacityup to 45,000 MMBtu/d. NorAm will continue to operate Illini as anintrastate system and expects to take over operation of the Illinisystem this summer.

Petal Gas Storage Co. (Petal), a subsidiary of Louisiana-basedCrystal Oil Co., plans to expand its high-deliverability saltcavern storage facility near Hattiesburg, MS. The proposedexpansion would include leaching an additional salt cavern with astorage capacity of 5 Bcf of which 3 Bcf would be working gas. Thenew cavern, combined with the existing 5.2 Bcf cavern (3.2 Bcfworking gas) would have a withdrawal capacity of 600 MMcf/d.