Companies

Shareholders of Sierra Pacific Resources and Nevada Power Co.Friday approved a merger of the two companies.

Kerr-McGee Corp. last week joined a growing number of productioncompanies, including ARCO, Occidental Petroleum and Unocal, thatare restructuring or reducing work forces because of the depressedoil market. Kerr-McGee said it plans to layoff about 70 workers,reducing its Oklahoma City metropolitan area work force by 7% andits exploration and production company staff by a similar amount.

In an effort to strengthen its ties with regulators, nationalpolicy makers and member companies, the American Gas Association(AGA) announced plans last week to move its headquarters next Marchfrom Arlington, VA, to downtown Washington, D.C. The associationwill take up residence on the fourth floor of the Hall of the Statebuilding’s south tower at 400 N. Capitol Street, which is twoblocks away from the Capitol building and four blocks from FERC.

Kerr-McGee Corp. yesterday joined a growing number of companies,including ARCO, Unocal and Occidental Petroleum, that plan torestructure or reduce workforces because of the depressed oilmarket. Kerr-McGee said it plans to layoff about 70 workers,reducing its Oklahoma City metropolitan area workforce by 7% andits exploration and production company staff by a similar amount.The company, which has $3.7 billion in assets and had already shedits coal businesses this year, said the restructuring is designedto save 20% of annual overhead cost, or about $18 million.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. has joined a collaborative effort of20 companies to create the largest survey of business energy use.Southern, the Regional Economic Research (RER), Opinion DynamicsCorp. and the Gas Research Institute plan to survey more than10,000 businesses across the U.S. to obtain detailed information onenergy usage as well as attitudes and behavior of energy buyers.The database and analysis system, called the National BusinessEnergy DataMart, will be packaged with software that providesdetailed analysis down to the individual customer level. Resultsare expected to be available next February.

About 80 electric-related companies are due to respond laterthis week to FERC inquiries aimed at determining whether marketmanipulation was a contributing factor to the wild price gyrationsin the Midwest electricity market in late June.

Cross Bay Pipeline partners the Williams Companies and DukeEnergy signed up KeySpan Energy Development as a third partner inthe project to move gas from interstate pipes in New Jersey to NewYork City and Long Island. The project will make use of existingpipes operated by Duke’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) andWilliams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Lines (Transco). KeySpan is asubsidiary of MarketSpan Corp., which is the parent of LDC BrooklynUnion.

CMS Energy would boost its presence in the Midcontinent with thepurchase of Continental Natural Gas for $155 million. The companiesagreed for CMS to acquire 100% of Continental’s common stock andassume Continental debt. The deal is worth about $90 million indebt and $65 million in equity for an approximate total value of$155 million. The agreement is subject to Continental shareholderapproval, and majority shareholders have said they favor it.Closing is expected early in the fourth quarter.

Shareowners of Western Resources and Kansas City Power &Light approved the merger of the companies to form Westar Energy.Approval required a majority of Western Resources common shares andtwo-thirds of KCPL outstanding common shares. About 98% of thevoting Western shares approved the transaction, representing 77% ofall shares outstanding. Nearly 94% of KCPL shares represented andvoting approved the transaction, representing 74.4% of alloutstanding KCPL shares.