Complete

Unocal’s Canadian subsidiary, Unocal Canada Management Ltd., hasconsolidated 96% of the shares of Northrock Resources Ltd., underits ownership in its recent bid to complete the acquisition of theCalgary-based oil and natural gas exploration and productioncompany.

Construction is complete, and Transwestern Pipeline Co. hasincreased its available capacity to California by 15%, a moveproviding expansion shippers with opportunities to move incrementalvolumes from the San Juan and Permian Basins to the Californiaborder. The $12 million project was approved by FERC in mid-January(see NGI, Jan. 17, 2000).

Construction is complete, and Transwestern Pipeline Co. hasincreased its available capacity to California by 15%, a moveproviding expansion shippers with opportunities to move incrementalvolumes from the San Juan and Permian Basins to the Californiaborder. The $12 million project was approved by FERC in mid-January(see Daily GPI, Jan. 13, 2000).

In a complete about-face, Dearborn, MI-based CMS Energy Corp.has jettisoned major financial restructuring plans to create atracking stock for its Consumers Energy unit. Low stock marketvaluations of utility companies forced the decision, according tocompany officials, and instead CMS plans to gain $700 million byselling some non-strategic assets and reducing its debt – a planexpected to offer more value to shareholders. The news comes alongwith word that first-quarter earnings were down to 70 cents perdiluted share, compared with 80 cents per diluted share for thesame period in 1999.

In a complete about-face, Southern Company now appears to be astrong champion of an amended deliverability expansion of Petal GasStorage LLC and has asked FERC to process the application as”quickly as practicable.”

The BP Amoco and Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) merger isofficially complete. BP Amoco will deliver to former ARCO holders,for each share of common stock owned, 1.64 American depositaryshares (ADS) of BP Amoco. Alternatively, if properly elected, ARCOcommon stock holders can receive BP Amoco ordinary shares. Cashwill be paid for fractional share interests. BP Amoco ADSs trade onthe New York Stock Exchange and other North American exchangesunder the symbol BPA with one ADS representing six ordinary sharestraded on the London Stock Exchange. Existing BP Amoco ADR holdersand existing ARCO preference stock holders do not need to take anyaction with respect to this transaction.

Tengasco Inc. began construction on Phase Two of its gaspipeline system following permitting by the Tennessee Department ofTransportation. The 28-mile mile second phase will complete the60-mile system, which ties Tengasco’s Swan Creek gas field intoend-user markets in Eastern Tennessee. The pipeline is the onlyintrastate gas carrier in Tennessee.

What a difference a day can make. Just 27 hours after testingkey support at $2.81, natural gas futures staged a completeturnaround, rallying to its highest daily continuation chartsettlement price this year. Nearly non-existent fundamental factorsgave traders little choice but to rely again on technical tradingtools for price direction. After the May contract posted animpressive gap higher open, that direction was in little doubt. Theprompt contract finished up 6.8 cents at $2.956, just a fraction ofa cent off its $2.96 high and within a nickel of its $3.005all-time high.

Sonat said it will try to complete valve maintenance set for todaywithout affecting production. However, if that can’t be done,production may be shut in for up to six hours at the MississippiCanyon 194, Mississippi Canyon 109, Mississippi Canyon 20 and RomerePass points. Reliant said Thursday it had lifted an operational alertlimiting capacity in the West of Amber segment in Oklahoma (see DailyGPI, March 29).