Canada

Continuing the attack on the northwest U.S. electric generationmarket, Avista Energy Canada, a Washington Water Power (WWP)affiliate, announced Wednesday the acquisition of Coast PacificManagement Inc., a gas manager for industrials throughout BritishColumbia. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the WWPaffiliate did say that Coast Pacific would be incorporated into itsVancouver operations. The deal became effective at the time of theannouncement.

Canada’s National Energy Board gave natural-gas exporters alicense to grow by approving the Alliance Pipeline Project, but theboard included a warning of the risks of excess capacity: pricecuts and strained supplies.

Canada’s National Energy Board gave natural-gas exporters alicense to grow by approving the Alliance Pipeline Project, but theboard included a warning of the risks of excess capacity, pricecuts and strained supplies.

The Alliance Pipeline project crossed one of its last remainingregulatory hurdles on Friday when Canada’s National Energy Boardconcluded it is not likely to cause significant adverseenvironmental effects provided 41 environmental recommendations areimplemented.

Industry reports that the start-up of the Canada-to-IllinoisNorthern Border Pipeline expansion, which has been planned forearly December, may be delayed are unfounded, said an officialassociated with the project.

The next round of restructuring is about to unfold in Canada’snatural-gas community as a white knight buyer prepares to stepforward for the country’s second-biggest supply aggregator,Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd. In fact, a team of rescuers has emerged.Senior Canadian industry sources say a producer consortium has comeup with a winning bid that will both keep the mammoth dealer inhome-grown hands and heal the worst remaining sore spot in thecommunity.

Koch Industries and the Royal Bank of Canada have formed astrategic alliance to jointly market energy-related trading andderivatives products to clients in North America andinternationally. The alliance is designed to provide the RoyalBank, which is one of the world’s top foreign exchange banks, with $30 billion/day in transactions, direct access to energy industryinformation and a broader array of energy derivative products, suchas weather derivatives. The deal gives Koch a connection to aworldwide collection of investment clientele. Royal Bank and itssubsidiaries serve 10 million clients through more than 1,500branches and offices located in 36 countries.

Cinergy Corp. took a huge step in growing its commoditymarketing operation yesterday with the purchase of Producers EnergyMarketing, LLC, (ProEnergy) from owners Oryx Energy and ApacheCorp. for $42.5 million and with the signing of a 10-year marketingalliance that covers both producers’ entire marketable gas supply,or about 1.1 Bcf/d.

The anticipated big price drops for the Memorial Day weekendshowed up on schedule Friday everywhere except in Canada. Declinesof a dime or more were common at nearly all points. Only theAppalachian pipes and a few in Louisiana managed to hang on over $2in the producing areas. Chicago and Michigan citygates fell about15 cents into the mid to high $2.00s, and Northeast citygates weredown about a dime into the low to mid $2.20s.