Columbia

Brian Watt, CEO of Columbia Energy Services (CES), predicted ashakeout of retail energy providers over the next five years on thescale of what happened in the telecommunications industry, wheremarket participants dwindled from 400 to less than 10.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbiahas struck down a controversial part of the Interior Department’s1997 royalty valuation rule for natural gas, which incorporatedmarketing costs in the valuation. (Civ. No. 98-00531)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last weekreversed and remanded a FERC order rejecting Transcontinental GasPipe Line’s bid to levy two-part, “firm-to-the-wellhead” (FTW)rates on certain production-area customers served by the line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last weekreversed and remanded a FERC order rejecting Transcontinental GasPipe Line Corp’s bid to levy two-part, “firm-to-the-wellhead” (FTW)rates on certain production-area customers served by the line.

Although dwarfed by the news of the proposed NiSource-Columbiamarriage, LG&E Energy Corp. had some glad tidings of its ownlast week — it signed off on a definitive merger agreement forBritain’s PowerGen plc to acquire the Louisville, KY-baseddiversified energy company in a cash-and-debt transaction valued at$5.4 billion.

Although dwarfed by the news of the proposed NiSource-Columbiamarriage, LG&E Energy Corp. had some glad tidings of its ownyesterday — it signed off on a definitive merger agreement forBritain’s PowerGen plc to acquire the Louisville, KY-baseddiversified energy company in a cash-and-debt transaction valued at$5.4 billion.

Apache Corp. announced a Canadian gas discovery that tested at31 MMcf/d British Columbia on acreage acquired from Shell Canadalate last year. “Proved reserves acquired in the Shell Canadatransaction were mainly oil, but the major upside lies in gasexploration on nearly 300,000 net acres and in the staff of highlymotivated technical people who joined Apache,” said ApachePresident G. Steven Farris. Apache holds a 37% working interest inthe Ladyfern area producer. Murphy Oil, the operator, holds 33% andBeau Canada Exploration has the remaining 30% working interest.”Pressure build-up tests are under way to help in determining theapproximate size of this discovery, but it’s safe to say it has thepotential to be a very large gas field,” Farris said. Apache andits partners have under lease more than 25,000 acres in theLadyfern area and are presently drilling two additional wildcatwells on separate structures. Apache and partners will build aneight-inch-diameter pipeline 15 miles to the Beau Canada pipelineto take Ladyfern gas to Apache’s Hamburg gas plant.

Apache Corp. announced a Canadian gas discovery that tested at31 MMcf/d British Columbia on acreage acquired from Shell Canadalate last year.

Williams and British Columbia Hydro are holding an open seasonthrough Feb. 22 for their proposed Georgia Strait Crossing PipelineProject (GSX). The project was announced in September (see Daily GPI,Sept. 30).