Both

Despite large increases in both operating income and income fromcontinuing operations, Columbia Energy Group’s 1999 bottom lineregressed from 1998, as a hostile takeover bid from NiSourcecombined with severe losses caused by Columbia’s marketingoperations to undermine the company’s overall performance.

Shareholders of MCN Energy Group and DTE Energy bothoverwhelmingly voted in favor of their two companies’ mergeryesterday. DTE proposed to purchase MCN last October (see DailyGPI, Oct. 6). The deal still needs Security and ExchangeCommission, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and FERC approval. Thecompanies expect the merger to close in mid-2000.

Although FERC staff shot down the Atlantic Alliance projecttwice as an alternative to both Independence and Millennium, it didnot deter project planners from moving forward with an open season.

While the new Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline is ready toflow, with government approvals on both sides of the border, itwill be sometime later in the month before Sable Island wells areoperational, according to a spokeswoman for the new Nova Scotia toNew England pipeline.

While the rest of the nascent December aftermarket Tuesdayreflected a mix of prices both above and below indexes but mostlyon the slightly higher side, Northeast citygates reacted todeliverability limits and increasingly winter-like weather byshooting up to $3-plus in most cases. The spike was most evident atTransco Zone 6-New York City, which saw a tremendous range of about$1.63 from top to bottom led by a high quote of $4.75.

After several years of battling, both in the courts and at FERC,the Commission last week finally approved a version of El PasoNatural Gas’ 1996 rate and capacity-turnback settlement that seemedto satisfy all parties involved. But to get to that point, El Pasowas forced to make some big concessions along the way to quellconcerns.

After several years of battling, both in the courts and at FERC,the Commission this week finally approved a version of El PasoNatural Gas’ 1996 rate and capacity-turnback settlement that seemedto satisfy all parties involved. But to get to that point, El Pasowas forced to make some big concessions along the way to quellconcerns.

After notching gains in both the regular and Access tradingsessions Wednesday, the futures market sank again yesterday asbulls battled with an increasingly negative technical picture andunsupportive weather outlooks. Within an hour of its $2.895 open,the December contract had already slipped a nickel lower. From thatpoint it continued to chop lower for the rest of the session,finishing down 4.7 cents at $2.826.

Both El Paso and Florida Gas Transmission lifted low-linepackOFOs Friday (see Daily GPI, Oct. 22).