Block

The company began moving its Houston operations to its Alexandria headquarterslast week in preparation for closing down the Houston office. The Houstonmarketing and trading group is expected to be operating at least throughthe end of the month and plans to come up with a transition plan to ensureservice will not be disrupted.

Midcoast Interstate Transmission’s (MIT) four-year effort toblock construction of Southern Natural’s North Alabama Pipeline iscoming to a close as the line is poised to start flowing gas. The120-mile, 70 MMcf/d mainline extension is seen as a threat by MIT,which has enjoyed a monopoly over transportation in that region foryears.

TransCanada kept the chopping block busy last week with thefinalizing of its U.S. midstream asset sale to the Coastal Corp. The$26 million transaction was originally revealed in November (see DailyGPI, Nov. 24) and completely exitsTransCanada from the U.S. midstream business.

Much like the rest of the majors, Phillips Petroleum is back ontrack in terms of strong financial results with $221 million in netincome in the third quarter, up from $46 million for the sameperiod last year. But CEO Jim Mulva said the sale of its midstreamGPM business, and possible “joint venturing” of its chemicals,refining and marketing operations are still on. The GPM sale isexpected to take place before the end of the year.

Statoil Energy, the largest Appalachian Basin gas reserve holderand a top energy marketer and independent power producer, was puton the auction block last week after having failed in its attemptthis summer to find a partner to invest about $1 billion in itsfuture.

Statoil Energy, the largest Appalachian Basin gas reserve holderand a top energy marketer and independent power producer, was puton the auction block yesterday after having failed in its attemptthis summer to find a partner to invest about $1 billion in itsfuture.

A gas well blowout that ignited last Sunday on NewfieldExploration’s Ship Shoal Block 354 continued to burn yesterday,company officials said. The fire is not expected to be extinguisheduntil later this week.

The City of New York said it’s prepared to go to court toprevent the construction of the Millennium Pipeline project alongproposed routes that would pose a threat to its water supply.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has put its Gulf Coast midstreamfacilities and its U.S. petroleum and products marketing andtrading businesses on the block, continuing to slim down to itscore transmission holdings.