Division

CMS Corp.’s marketing division, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (MST), completed an agreement Tuesday to purchase a total of 9.3 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the North West Shelf LNG project in Australia for delivery to the CMS Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The announcement marks the second major deal CMS has struck to take advantage of its purchase of Eastern Panhandle Pipeline and Trunkline Gas Co. from Duke Energy last year.

Williams’ exploration and production division increased the sizeof its gas reserve holdings by nearly 30% last week, buying 184Bcfe of proved reserves with 30 MMcf/d of production and 192,000undeveloped acres in the Rocky Mountain region from MCN Energy for$106 million. An additional 35 Bcfe of proved reserves in theRockies were sold by MCN to other unnamed buyers.

Williams’ exploration and production division increased the sizeof its gas reserve holdings by nearly 30% yesterday, buying 184Bcfe of proved reserves with 30 MMcf/d of production and 192,000undeveloped acres in the Rocky Mountain region from MCN Energy for$106 million. An additional 35 Bcfe of proved reserves in theRockies were sold by MCN to other unnamed buyers.

Aggressively attempting to lower debt before its upcoming mergerwith Seagull Energy, Ocean Energy Inc. sold its Canadian oil andgas division Friday to Quintana Minerals Canada Corp. for $74million. OEI said shareholders for both companies are holdingspecial meetings March 30 to vote on the merger. If they vote infavor, the company will be officially merged that afternoon.

A hot summer which boosted electricity use, and increases in itsEnergy Services division led Duke Energy’s 42% increase in 1998third quarter basic earnings which registered $423.8 million or$1.18 per share, up from $298.4 or 83 cents per share for the samequarter in 1997.

Seagull Energy’s board has elected James T. Hackett as its newpresident and CEO, and its future chairman. Hackett, 44, has beenpresident of Duke’s Energy Services Division. Prior to that he wasexecutive vice president of PanEnergy. He will succeed Barry J.Galt, who has been chairman and CEO since 1983. Galt will continueto serve as chairman for the remainder of the year before beingelected vice chairman, at which time Hackett will assume theadditional position of chairman. Hackett said he looks forward tothe opportunity. Seagull “has a good management team, a solidbalance sheet and a strong collection of domestic and internationalassets.” Hackett has held a variety of positions in finance,marketing and engineering in the exploration and production andmidstream sectors of the industry for Amoco, Burlington Resourcesand NGC Corp. (now Dynegy). Subsequently, Seagull announced John W.Elias resigned as executive vice president and a director. Elias,who joined Seagull in 1993, supervised the company’s domestic andinternational oil and gas operations.

Seagull Energy’s board has elected James T. Hackett as its newpresident and CEO, and its future chairman. Hackett, 44, has beenpresident of Duke’s Energy Services Division. Prior to that he wasexecutive vice president of PanEnergy.

Prosper Business Development Corp. of Columbus, OH, formed adivision to assist energy companies in dealing with marketingchallenges of deregulation. Prosper NRG Marketing offers a varietyof turnkey products designed to enhance marketing efforts to thecommercial and residential segments of the energy market. Theproducts can be used to sell energy without a direct sales force.