Deals

After power price spikes, contract defaults and costly supplydeals cost Cinergy $73 million in July, the company said it wasseriously considering quiting the supply business altogether. (SeeDaily GPI, Aug. 9, Aug. 11, and Aug.13) But CEO James E. Rogerssaid yesterday the company’s board of directors has unanimouslydecided Cinergy should stick with it as the industry moves to acompetitive environment.

In step with the rest of the industry as it deals with supersoft commodity prices, Houston-based Pogo Producing Co. also hascut back spending. In recent years the company’s annual explorationbudgets have been between $230 million and $250 million. Lastyear’s allocation was $230 million and was set to grow to between$260 and $270 million, said CEO Paul Van Wagenen. Instead, thecompany cut back considerably. This year Pogo is planning to spendabout $170 million.

Midcoast Energy Resources Inc. grew its Texas asset base withthe acquisition of two gathering systems in two separate dealsworth a combined $4.55 million. Midcoast bought the Mendotagathering pipeline and processing plant from Seagull Energy Corp.for $3.75 million in cash. The Mendota facilities are in RobertsCounty, TX, and include about 35 miles of gathering pipeline, a 10MMcf/d cryogenic gas processing plant and compression facilitieswith a combined 2,400 horsepower. The system gathers gas from morethan 70 active wells and has a total throughput of 7,200 Mcf/d. TheMendota pipeline is located adjacent to the Anadarko system, whichMidcoast purchased from El Paso Energy Corp. in September 1998, andMidcoast plans to integrate the operations of the Mendota andAnadarko systems. Also as part of the transaction, Seagull hasdedicated production from all of its existing acreage in the areato Midcoast for the next five years.

Two recently announced deals provide further proof thatindependent producers are finding it tough going in the current lowcommodity price environment. Houston-based independentRutherford-Moran Oil Corp. struck a deal with Chevron to allow itto continue activities in the Gulf of Thailand, and EEX announcedit is selling $150 million of securities to fund its deep-waterdevelopment program.

Devon Energy Corp. said it signed agreements that fix the priceit will receive for 55,000 MMBtu/d of its 1999 production at$2.01/MMBtu. In addition, Devon currently has agreements covering8,000 MMBtu/d of its Canadian production at an average price ofC$2.32/MMBtu.

Consumers are becoming more interested in buying energy,communications and other services in one-stop package deals, arecent national survey has found. However, customers expect any”bundled” products and services to be offered at a discount of atleast 5%, according to the survey. In fact, interest in specificpackages increases in direct proportion to the depth of thediscount. Overall, customers assume that combining products andservices in a package over a single brand will add value and createeconomies of scale

The hypervolatility in swing deals done Friday for Nov. 1-2 madeit difficult to gauge where the cash market was moving Monday. Butthe overall mix of flat to about a dime or so up or down (includingjust about all points in between) amounted to a general wash thattilted a little bit to the negative side, sources said. Besides,they added, it was generally a quiet day for most traders as theytook stock of bidweek and prospects for the upcoming days.

San Francisco-based PG&E Corp. leap-frogged the continent tocomplete the $1.59 billion acquisition of New England ElectricSystem’s generating business, including hydro and gas-fired plantswith 5,100 MW of capacity. The acquisition was made by PG&Esubsidiary U.S. Generating Co.

If pipelines want the freedom to negotiate competitive deals,they must first get rid of the “most notorious symbol of marketpower” – the straight-fixed variable rate design (SFV) – and offervolumetric rates, Dynegy Marketing and Trade told FERC last week.