Boosts

Longtime industry basement dweller Chesapeake Energy is finallypulling itself up by its bootstraps with a little help from the gasmarket and Gothic Energy. The company announced on Friday that itplans to buy Gothic, its frequent Midcontinent drilling partner, ina stock and cash transaction valued at about $345 million.

Longtime industry basement dweller Chesapeake Energy is finallypulling itself up by its bootstraps with a little help from the gasmarket and Gothic Energy. The company announced on Friday that itplans to buy Gothic, its frequent Midcontinent region drillingpartner, in a stock and cash transaction valued at about $345million.

San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. announced yesterday it hascompleted the acquisitions of the remaining 50% interests in twonatural gas-fired power generation facilities from two affiliatesof Statoil Energy Inc. of Alexandria, VA, for $71 million.

Like a monster at the end of horror movie that refuses to die,natural gas futures sprung back to life Friday following Thursday’squiet trading session that led some to believe the bull-run wasover. It didn’t take the market to prove them wrong Friday, as theJune contract gapped higher at the open and then erupted 11.5 centsto close at $3.825.

A unit of Williams’ energy services business finished expandinga gas plant in Opal, WY, that boosts cryogenic processing capacityto 735 MMcf/d and gas liquids extraction capacity to 43,000 b/d. Athird cryogenic processing train was added, two existing cryogenictrains were modified, and control systems and field compressionwere enhanced. Total costs exceeded $60 million.

Transco’s Sundance expansion project received two major boostslast week as Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) and Southern Co.each said they have purchased major capacity deals on the yet-to-beconstructed line. The contracts will go into effect when Sundancebecomes operational in the Spring of 2002, barring rejection fromFERC.

San Jose, CA-based independent power producer Calpine Corp. madea major investment in upstream gas supply for its current andfuture gas-fired power plants in California. The company bought 90Bcf of proven gas reserves in the Sacramento Basin from VintagePetroleum for $71.5 million. The transaction will make Calpine thelargest gas producer in the basin, raising its production to 43MMcf/d. The Vintage reserves currently produce 14.3 MMcf/d.

San Jose, CA-based independent power producer Calpine Corp. madea major investment in upstream gas supply for its current andfuture gas-fired power plants in California yesterday. The companybought 90 Bcf of proven gas reserves in the Sacramento Basin fromVintage Petroleum for $71.5 million. The transaction will makeCalpine the largest gas producer in the basin, raising itsproduction to 43 MMcf/d. The Vintage reserves currently produce14.3 MMcf/d.

There was decided regional divergence in Tuesday’s swing pricemovement. The Gulf Coast and Appalachia/Northeast, being the areasstill affected most by unseasonably warm weather, ranged from flatto down as much as a dime. But from the Midcontinent westward,where it actually seemed a bit winterish behind a cold frontheading east, prices were flat to a few cents higher, with theRockies, Southwest basins, California and intra-Alberta seeingincreases of about a nickel or more.