Buying

Peoples Energy Production Co., the affiliate of Peoples Gas,extended a year-long buying binge Thursday, by obtaining 70% ofEnsign Operating Co.’s Arkoma basin assets for $15 million. Theproduction arm of Peoples Energy has now spent $65 million inpartnerships and acquisitions since the fall of 1998.

Energy.com Corp. of Columbus, OH, said it plans to streamlinethe energy buying process for commercial and industrial customersand at the same time make life easier for energy marketers. Thecompany is preparing to launch eBID, an on-line Request forProposal (RFP) system through its web site at www.energy.com. Theweb-based interactive RFP process will allow commercial andindustrial businesses to shop for the best energy source on-line.Energy.com’s eBID is scheduled to launch later this month.

El Paso Power Services Co., a subsidiary of Houston-based ElPaso Energy, agreed to buy the interests of PSEG Global and ENPEXCorp. in the Newark Bay Cogeneration Partnership in a deal worthmore than $100 million and expected to close as early as July thismonth.

Consolidated Natural Gas Co. E&P subsidiary CNG ProducingCo. agreed to buy interests in Lopeno and two adjacent South Texasgas fields. Earlier in the year, CNG Producing bought about a 50%interest in the Lopeno field, and together with the most recentpurchase, CNG Producing will own nearly 100%. On a combined basis,the company will pay $125 million for the two transactions.

While Eastern Pennsylvania utility, PP&ampL Resources, continuedits cross-country expansion, annexing assets in Montana and Maine,former utility Montana Power mapped out a future in oil, gas andtelecommunications.

Cautious selling was met with light, scale-down buying pressureat the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. And when the dust hadcleared and all the orders counted, both bulls and bears couldglean something positive from the session. Bulls were quick topoint to the $2.225 settlement, a 0.7-cent advance for the day.Bears, on the other hand, touted Friday’s lower high and lower lowas an indication the downtrend was still intact. Estimated volumeof 77,538 confirmed the heavy activity in the pit.

Shell Oil affiliate Tejas Energy agreed to sell its Transokaffiliate to Enogex Inc. for about $700 million, which includesEnogex’s assumption of $173 million of long-term debt. Transok isheadquartered in Tulsa and operates more than 5,000 miles ofpipelines with capacity of about 2.5 Bcf/d and nine gas processingand treating plants.

UtiliCorp United added another Missouri-based utility to its recent acquisitions last week, buying Empire District Electric Co. in a stock and cash transaction valued at $800 million, including assumption of debt. The purchase comes only two months after UtiliCorp bought St. Joseph Light &Power for $270 million (see NGI, March 8).

Adding to Monday’s gains the natural gas futures continuedhigher at Nymex yesterday as technical buying lifted the Junecontract in active trading. And with that 4.8-cent rally to $2.359,June was able to successfully fill in $2.31-33 daily chart gap andnotch its highest daily close in more than a year.