Been

Kinder Morgan and KN Energy announced the completion of theirmerger. The company has been renamed Kinder Morgan, Inc. and willtrade under the New York Stock Exchange symbol “KMI.” The $900million merger was announced last July.

Patricia K. Swanke has been named vice president, operations,for The Dayton Power and Light Co., effective immediately. Swankebegan her career at DP&L in 1990 and has held variouspositions, most recently as managing director of gas and electrictransmission and distribution operations.

UtiliCorp Energy Management (UEM) has been awarded a three-yearcontract to manage the energy requirements of Ash Grove Cement, anOverland Park, Kan.-based company operating facilities in ninewestern states. Financial terms of the agreement were notdisclosed. UEM will manage the cement company’s energy procurement,supply management, contract negotiations, and reporting and billingservices, as well as identify and implement energy cost reductionstrategies. UEM said the deal was important because it improves thegeographic presence of the company. Ash Grove Cement annually usesmore than 6.5 Bcf and 600,000 MWh at its facilities.

For the most part yesterday cash prices carved out increases asTropical Storm Harvey lent some support to the East and maintenanceissues helped strengthen prices along the West Coast and Rockies.Yet mild weather nationwide, the expected American Gas Associationstorage report of higher-than-normal injections and a weak futuresscreen were traders’ main topics of conversation yesterday. And thegeneral consensus is that cash price increases may be hard to comeby for the next few days.

“It’s been a fun market recently if you like roller-coasters.” AGulf Coast marketer was referring to Thursday pricing that onceagain started significantly lower but later moved higher to settlenear the top end of daily ranges. Softening continued at mostpoints but was very mild compared to the larger drops earlier thisweek. A majority of the declines were about a nickel or less, and afew scattered points even turned in flat performances.

Northwest postponed smart pig runs that had been scheduled fromthe Sumas to Mount Vernon and from the Washougal to Willardcompressor stations (all are in Washington state) for Sept. 23 andSept. 29 respectively. Northwest said the runs will take placeduring the week of Oct. 4 and that it decided to eliminate dummypig runs.

Traders resurrected a phrase they hadn’t been using very muchlately: “following the screen.” Like a rising tide that lifts allboats, the Henry Hub futures contract for September turned in astrong performance Wednesday and spurred moderate firmness in cashnumbers. In the absence of substantial change in marketfundamentals, there was little besides the Nymex pit for cashguidance, a marketer said.

Duke/Fluor Daniel has been awarded a contract by West GeorgiaGenerating Co. L.P., a subsidiary of Sonat Energy Services, toprovide engineering, procurement and construction services for a650 MW dual fuel, gas and distillate oil-fired power plant in UpsonCounty, GA. The power plant will be designed to use four PG7241(FA) gas turbines in simple-cycle operation. The $180 million powerplant, which will be built within the Thomaston Industrial Park inUpson County, is expected to be fully operational by June 1, 2000.A significant portion of the electricity from the plant will besold to Georgia Power under an existing power sales agreement.

Houston-based Energy Solutions Inc. (ESI), the developer of gasand risk management software GASMAN, has been acquired byLICENERGY of Denmark. The deal is intended to create a company witha larger market presence in the transaction management andconsulting arena. Energy Solutions will be renamed Energy SolutionsInternational.