Debt

Duke Energy said it is selling its 50% stake in Foothills Pipe Lines to TransCanada PipeLines for $177 million (C$257 million), including $105 million (C$152 million) in Foothills debt. Duke obtained the Foothills interest when it purchased Westcoast Energy in 2002 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24, 2001).

Duke Energy said it is selling its 50% stake in Foothills Pipe Lines to TransCanada PipeLines for $177 million (C$257 million), including $105 million (C$152 million) in Foothills debt. Duke obtained the Foothills interest when it purchased Westcoast Energy in 2002 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21, 2001; Feb. 28, 2002).

The financial storm enveloping Aquila Corp. — cuts in its credit rating to below investment grade, forced asset sales, restructuring of its operations and widespread federal investigations into its trading — will have “possible negative impacts” on the company’s regulated natural gas distribution facilities and power utilities in Missouri, but an immediate rate hike doesn’t appear to be in the cards for customers, according to a Missouri Public Service Commission staff report.

Focused on efforts to continue its debt load reduction, independent Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. on Thursday said that next month it plans to redeem $30 million of its outstanding 10% senior notes that won’t come due until 2007.

Having been eyewitnesses to a wave of debt rating downgrades, anemic wholesale power prices and the collapse of the once-mighty Enron over the past year, a majority of power industry executives recently surveyed don’t expect the sector to rebound until 2004 at the earliest.

In a press release ostensibly to announce a stock issuance to improve its liquidity and pay down some debt, TXU Corp. acknowledged Monday that it has received an informal data request from the Securities and Exchange Commission that asks the company to “voluntarily provide documents related to its recent dividend declaration.” TXU said it would comply fully with the request, and does not anticipate “any adverse consequences.”

In a move to stave off a possible involuntary bankruptcy attempt, Southern California Edison announced it has agreed to pay the City of Long Beach, the largest municipality in its service territory, $14 million for past-due bills related to power that the city sells to the utility from a municipal waste-fired generation plant.

APF Energy Trust said yesterday it will pay C$90 millionincluding debt to acquire all of the outstanding shares of AllianceEnergy Inc., which will double APF’s daily oil and gas production.APF said it would pay the equivalent of 0.201 APF shares for eachAlliance share, or C$2.02 per share up to a maximum of 2.2 millionunits or C$35 million.

El Paso Energy Corp. is closer to acquiring PG&E Corp.’sTexas gathering and liquids businesses for about $840 million instock and debt after signing a consent agreement earlier this week.The deal includes 8,500 miles of natural gas transmission pipelinesthat transport about 2.8 Bcf/d, nine processing plants that process1.5 Bcf/d, and a 7.2 Bcf natural gas storage field.