Builds

Increasing its natural gas gathering and processing footprint in the rapidly growing Fort Worth Basin, Houston-based Enbridge Energy Partners LP (EEP) signed a $247 million purchase agreement with Cantera Resources Inc., an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, for about 2,000 miles of gathering lines and five active processing facilities in North Texas.

Nine consecutive weeks of sizable, if not record, builds to natural gas storage inventories appear to be lessening some of the concerns about supply levels for next winter, but major industrial gas customers aren’t feeling any easier.

The 310 MW public sector power plant that received final state approvals earlier this month, Magnolia Power Project, owes its status as the first baseload facility to be built in years in the center of the Los Angeles Basin to a readily available and flexible natural gas and water infrastructure that could only be found at an existing urban power plant site in a heavy industry sector.

Dynegy Inc. said Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of BG Storage Ltd. and its natural gas storage facilities and related assets in the United Kingdom, establishing the cornerstone of the Houston-based company’s European physical energy convergence presence. The deal includes 30 wells with five offshore platforms, nine salt caverns, about 19 miles of pipelines and an onshore natural gas processing terminal.

Dynegy Inc. has completed its acquisition of BG Storage Ltd. and its natural gas storage facilities and related assets in the United Kingdom, establishing the cornerstone of the Houston-based company’s European physical energy convergence presence. The deal includes 30 wells with five offshore platforms, nine salt caverns, about 19 miles of pipelines and an onshore natural gas processing terminal.

Noting that its objective is to focus on North Texas as its core area of development, Empire Energy Corp. on Wednesday signed a letter of agreement to purchase, for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock, additional oil and gas interests in the Fort Worth Basin of North Central Texas. It already owns a 50% working interest in production acreage of the Old World Prospect in Parker County, and will purchase the remaining 50% along with a 100% interest in three other properties in the same area. Empire also will take over as lease operator.

FERC last Wednesday said it would implement several additional measures in an ongoing effort to unsnarl the rat’s nest of problems that continues to hound wholesale electricity and natural gas markets out West. By a vote of 3-0, the Commission reaffirmed several actions, including allowing premiums on equity returns and accelerated depreciation for projects that increase electric transmission capacity in the short term, to address energy-related difficulties facing California and the western part of the country.

Looking to build on steps it has already taken to ease the supply of energy into California and other Western states, FERC yesterday said that it would implement several additional measures in an ongoing effort to unsnarl the rat’s nest of problems that continues to hound wholesale electricity and natural gas markets out West.

After a positive surprise with its fourth quarter earningsperformance, Phillips Petroleum continued to astonish observerslast week, buying Tosco Corp. in a $7 billion stock transactionthat will make Phillips the second-largest refining company in theUnited States with a capacity of 1.7 MMbbl/d.