Corporate

If you build it, a corporate sponsor will come. This time aroundit’s Houston’s new baseball stadium, and Enron Corp. said last weekit will pay $100 million over 30 years for naming rights to theballpark to be known as Enron Field. Enron Energy Services (EES)also will provide energy management to the facility.

If you build it, a corporate sponsor will come. This time aroundit’s Houston’s new baseball stadium and Enron Corp., which saidWednesday it will pay $100 million over 30 years for naming rightsto the ballpark to be known as Enron Field. Enron Energy Services(EES) also will provide energy management to the facility.

CMS Energy Corp. subsidiary CMS Continental Natural Gas Inc.agreed with Pennaco Energy Inc., and CMS corporate affiliate CMSOil and Gas to gather coal-bed methane gas from the Powder RiverBasin in Wyoming and Montana. CMS Continental is to providelong-term, low-pressure gathering. The deal includes an acreagededication of more than 580,000 acres in the Powder River Basinwithin the previously announced CMS Oil and Gas/Pennaco Energy Areaof Mutual Interest.

Sempra Energy Trading announced it has relocated its corporateheadquarters to Stamford, CT, from Greenwich. The energy marketersigned a 10-year-lease on a 35,000 square-foot renovated warehousein Commerce Park. The new space is nearly double the size ofSempra’s former offices and features a 15,000-square-foot tradingfloor. “It is large enough to accommodate our future growth plans,”said David Messer, president of Sempra Energy Trading. Thewarehouse space was transformed easily into a trading floor due toits high ceilings, open space and heavy power supply, he added. Therenovations included the addition of a new trading floor, offices,conference rooms, cafeteria and library. Currently, the newheadquarters houses 153 employees. Formerly known as AIG Trading,Sempra Energy Trading adopted its current name when it was jointlyacquired by Sempra Energy (formed by the merger of Enova Corp. andPacific Enterprises) in August 1997.

Executing a plan first announced in August, Washington WaterPower will change its corporate name to Avista Corp. Jan. 1 thecompany announced Tuesday. All company operations will be unifiedunder the new name. Washington Water Power along with its WPNatural Gas division will combine to form an operating division ofthe new company called Avista Utilities. On Jan. 4, the firstbusiness day of the new year, all Washington Water Power stock willbe traded for the first time as Avista Corp. common stock under theticker symbol “AVA”. According to a company spokesman, the namechange allows the company more flexibility beyond its utilityidentity and geographic location.

From its new corporate headquarters in San Diego, officials ofthe newly merged $6.2 billion Sempra Energy yesterday stronglypromoted their goal of expanding both utility and nonutilitybusinesses throughout the U.S. in the next 10 years as energyrestructuring spreads from state to state. It plans both highprofile marketing/branding and political campaigns to further itsgoal of being “one of the top five energy services companies inNorth America.”