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Florida Power Corp. has joined in the flurry of new energyprojects spurred by this summer’s record-setting heat wave, filingplans with the Florida Public Service Commission to accelerate thebuilding of a second generation unit at its Hines Energy Complex inPolk County. The unit will provide additional capability to meetgrowing demand for electricity well into the next century. Thecompany has offered to absorb construction costs for the plant inits current customer rates.

The stock merger of Kerr-McGee and Oryx Energy creates the No. 4U.S. independent producer with market capitalization of $4 billionand is symptomatic of an industry pushed headlong intoconsolidation by sharply depressed oil and gas prices.

The 1 Bcf/d Vector Pipeline project has taken the lead amongmajor pipelines designed to move gas east from Chicago. Vector wonpreliminary approval on non-environmental grounds from FERC lastweek, which puts it ahead of the TriState Pipeline, IndependencePipeline and the Tennessee Eastern Express projects in the strugglethrough the regulatory process.

ARCO said it will implement a cost reduction program designed toreduce before-tax costs by more than $500 million over the next twoyears. Approximately $350 million of the cost savings are expectedin 1999. The cost reductions will fall largely into fourcategories: upstream operating and support costs; explorationspending; downstream operating and support costs; and costs for thecorporate center and support services. ARCO’s increasedconcentration on core exploration and production areas and therecent divesting of non-strategic assets have facilitated theadditional cost reductions.

FERC’s proposal to organize and monitor the short-term marketthrough daily auctions is either a belated and unnecessaryadministrative nightmare – or the road to vigorous competition inthe transportation market, i.e. the “commoditization” oftransportation.

Parties have reached an agreement on terms for unravelinglong-term transportation arrangements that for years enabledSouthern California Gas to control its imports of Canadian gasthrough its paper pipeline affiliate, Pacific InterstateTransmission Co. (PITCO).

Almost a third of gas and oil companies surveyed expect to havecompleted Year-2000 (Y2K) remediation by the end of the year,according to the results of a new survey by the Natural Gas Council(NGC). It further found that 73% said they would be ready by June1999, while all respondents indicated they would be prepared byDecember 1999.

Almost a third of gas and oil companies surveyed expect to havecompleted Year-2000 (Y2K) remediation by the end of the year,according to the results of a new survey by the Natural Gas Council (NGC) that was released last week. It further found that73% said they would be ready by June 1999, while all respondentsindicated they would be ready by December 1999.

Dauphin Island Gathering Partners (DIGP) has signed an uniquesupply and gathering agreement with producers Elf Exploration Inc.,Coastal Oil and Gas, Nippon Oil Exploration U.S.A. and PogoProducing, who are partners in the deep-water Virgo prospect.