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Undeterred by those who have gone before it and failed, KNEnergy jumped into the fray with a pipeline project to servenorthern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced a common stockoffering of 6.25 million shares. Proceeds of about $240.6 millionbefore expenses are to be used for general purposes, including U.S.gas and oil projects. The offering is Anadarko’s first since it wasspun off from Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line in 1986. Moody’sInvestors Service changed its rating outlook for Anadarko’s fixedincome securities to stable from negative based on increasingproduction, reserve replacement at reasonable finding costs, aswell as the common equity issuance. Anadarko has replaced more than200% of production for the past five years and in 1998 replacedmore than 500% of production at finding costs below most of theindustry, Moody’s said. The addition of mainly gas reserves lastyear lowered oil reserves to about 53% of the total.

In a major clarification of policy, FERC decided it wasn’tnecessary to address the merits of each objection before approvingcontested pipeline rate settlements. Instead, it said settlementscould be ratified based on the reasonableness of the overallpackage. The policy adjustment was reflected in a rehearing orderthat approved a rate settlement between Trailblazer Pipeline andits customers as being “reasonable as a package” for consentingparties, yet at the same time severed contesting parties, AmocoProduction and Amoco Energy. The action cleared the way forconsenting parties to maintain the benefits of their settlementbargain while giving the Amoco affiliates a chance to litigate the”complex factual issues” that they raised [RP97-408-006].

After slipping 2.5 cents Tuesday, the May natural gas futurescontract climbed back up to just below stubborn support at $2.19yesterday in tenuous trading ahead of the release of the AmericanGas Association (AGA) storage report. May finished the session up 3cents to $2.174.

Some traders were groaning with dismay Wednesday at the prospectof the March market being one of nearly all sideways pricemovement, much like the February one preceding it. All it takes isa look at the multitude of zeroes and ones in the change column ofDaily GPI’s price table today to understand where they might havegotten such an idea.

It won’t be long before natural gas users will be able togenerate their own electricity at home, according to Plug Power,which announced that it has completed the successful demonstrationof a natural gas-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cellsystem. The residential- sized system-which includes a fuel cellstack, power conditioner and a Johnson Matthey fuelprocessor-produced in excess of 4 kW of electricity this week atthe company’s upstate New York development facility.

After seesawing throughout most of the morning, futures pricestumbled again Wednesday as traders surveyed the threat of freshbearish fundamental news. The front-month January contract finisheddown 7.2 cents to $1.886 at the close, barely off session lows of$1.88. Estimated volume was a healthy 67,274.

ARCO announced a major cost reduction program last week thatwill chop $500 million in before-tax expenses and 900 employeesfrom it operations over the next two years. The majority of thecut-backs, $350 million, are expected in 1999.

ARCO said it will implement a cost reduction program designed toreduce before-tax costs by more than $500 million over the next twoyears. Approximately $350 million of the cost savings are expectedin 1999. The cost reductions will fall largely into fourcategories: upstream operating and support costs; explorationspending; downstream operating and support costs; and costs for thecorporate center and support services. ARCO’s increasedconcentration on core exploration and production areas and therecent divesting of non-strategic assets have facilitated theadditional cost reductions.