Common

San Diego-based Brandes Investment Partners LLC, which owns 6% of the common shares of El Paso, said on Friday it will vote to keep the current board of directors. On May 31, Brandes owned nearly 36 million shares of the company, however some of its clients retain voting discretion.

El Paso Corp. was in the unenviable position of being the most traded common stock on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday because investors were continuing a sell-off. The company’s stock dropped a little over 22% to $3.65. The market overall was down on war fears, and other energy companies took a hit, but not in the same league as El Paso.

Spikes of a quarter or more were common at eastern points Thursday morning, as the cold weather that had failed to avert general softness on Wednesday recovered its price-supportive powers in a big way. The shivering Northeast led the way with gains of up to nearly 70 cents at Transco Zone 6 non-NY, although New England points were comparatively somewhat weak. Western upticks tended to be smaller than those in the East, although such markets as Waha, Permian Basin, San Juan Basin and Sumas rose by about 30 cents or more.

Main Street AC Inc., which has been attempting to acquire up to 4.9% of the outstanding common stock of Aquila Inc., Dynegy Inc., Mirant Corp. and Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI) since August, has extended its tender offer through midnight Oct. 15. As of last Friday, Main Street said it now holds 3.5 million shares of Dynegy; 2.2 million shares of Mirant; 1.2 million shares of RRI and 0.9 million shares of Aquila.

The common stock price of El Paso Corp. took a massive hit again Tuesday, as the ratings agencies focused on the adverse FERC administrative law judge decision of Monday (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24). Standard & Poor’s placed El Paso and its affiliates on CreditWatch with negative implications, and Moody’s also initiated a review for possible downgrade.

Houston-based Dynegy Inc. said its board of directors has elected not to pay a dividend on the company’s Class A or Class B common stock for the third quarter of this year.

El Paso Energy Partners LP raised its first quarter and annual cash distributions to $0.65 and $2.60 per common unit, confirmed its quarterly and full-year earnings estimates, which are in line with Wall Street expectations, and signed a deal to build a gas production platform and gathering hub in Mustang Island block 103 in the Gulf of Mexico for Pioneer Natural Resources’ and Mariner Energy’s Falcon Field.

Williams’ common stock price dropped 22% Tuesday, amid a general market downturn, after the company estimated earnings, but said it would not have a complete and final earnings report until it assessed contingent liabilities related to Williams Communications Group (WCG), which was spun off last year.

Castle Energy Corp. has agreed to sell all of its domestic oil and gas properties to Delta Petroleum for $20 million in cash plus 9.6 million shares of Delta common stock, which would result in the company owning 43% of Delta. The properties consist of oil and gas interests in 525 oil and gas wells in 14 states, including associated undeveloped acreage, with total proved reserves of 65 Bcfe of gas, of which 32 Bcfe are proved developed producing reserves. The effective date of the sale was Oct. 1, 2001 and closing is expected by April 30.