Buying

Houston-based El Paso Energy Corp. plans to acquire Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA, for $57 cash per Crystal share in adeal worth $224.6 million.

Apache Corp. will increase its oil reserves five-fold with a deal to acquire producing properties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada with proved reserves of 87.5 MMBoe from Shell Canada Limited for $524 million. The deal follows one made earlier this year with Shell for Gulf of Mexico assets that more than doubled Apache’s gas and oil production.

Apache Corp. made a definitive agreement to acquire producingproperties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia andSaskatchewan, Canada with proved reserves of 87.5 MMBoe from ShellCanada Limited for C$770 million (US$524 million at currentexchange rates).

Acquisitive Calpine Corp. stuck to its strategy last Friday,saying it agreed to buy 80% of the Minneapolis, MN-basedCogeneration Corp. of America (CGCA) for $145 million. The proposedacquisition will increase Calpine’s gas-fired energy production to2,476 net MW of capacity, representing a 20% jump in production.Calpine expects to complete the deal in January.

Fresh from a deal annexing its first natural gas assets, Carolina Power & Light Co. (CP&L) plans to grow considerably by acquiring Florida Progress Corp., parent of Florida Power, for $5.3 billion.

Carolina Power & Light Co. (CP&L) would bulk upconsiderably with its planned acquisition, announced yesterday, ofFlorida Progress Corp., parent of Florida Power, for $5.3 billion.The combined company would be worth about $17 billion and serve 2.7million customers, nearly 200,000 of them gas. It also would be thenation’s ninth-largest energy utility based on generating capacityof more than 18,500 megawatts.

After etching a $2.66 low early yesterday, the futures marketmoved higher on continued speculative buying pressure and bullishconcerns over today’s release of fresh storage data. The Septembercontract finished at $2.708, up 0.8 cents on the day.

After watching prices tumble 10 cents in a tumultuous last hourof trading Thursday, bulls were quick to assume control of themarket Friday as they continued to add to their already hefty longpositions. The September contract finished at $2.698, up 5.1 centsfor the day and 15.5 for the week.

Fueled by follow-through buying on the heels of Monday advances,the futures market ambled higher yesterday as traders weighed theimpact of bullish news expected to be released this afternoon. TheSeptember contract finished up to 2.3 cents at $2.598. Impressiveadvances were also seen in the out months with the October,November and December contracts notching similar gains.