Completion

CMS Energy, announcing completion of the $2.2 billion deal tobuy Duke Energy’s Panhandle Eastern and Trunkline pipeline and LNGassets, also has acquired a president and COO for the new CMSPanhandle Pipeline companies. Christopher A. Helms had been Duke’sgeneral manager of business development and managing director ofits PanEnergy Services Europe subsidiary.

Avista Energy announced today it has moved into the top ten inthe power marketing ranks with completion of its acquisition ofVitol Gas & Electric LLC, one of the top 20 energy marketingcompanies in the United States.

TEPPCO Partners, L.P. has announced the completion of itsacquisition of the oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) pipelinesbusiness of Duke Energy Transport and Trading Company (DETTCO) fromthe parent, Duke Energy.

In the view of Enron CEO Kenneth L. Lay, deregulation andtechnological advances will be a boon to consumers and also naturalgas. As completion creates greater incentives for boostingefficiency, particularly with regard to power regulation, naturalgas stands to benefit. Lay pointed out combined-cycle generation,especially that fired by natural gas, accounts for 60% of total newinstalled generation capacity in the United States since 1991.

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.

Kentucky’s two largest electric utilities – Louisville Gas andElectric (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU) – won final FERCapproval for their merger Wednesday, paving the way for itscompletion sometime in the second quarter, the utilities said.