Doubling

ONEOK Partners LP said Wednesday that Fort Union Gas Gathering LLC is doubling its existing gathering pipeline capacity by adding 148 miles of new gathering lines and 649 MMcf/d of additional capacity. A ONEOK Partners’ subsidiary, Crestone Powder River LLC, has a 37.04% interest in Fort Union Gas Gathering.

Shell Canada Ltd., targeted for a buyout by parent Royal Dutch Shell plc, is nearly doubling its investment spending in 2007 to C$4 billion ($3.5 billion) from the C$2.7 billion set aside this year. About one-quarter of the spending will be directed toward natural gas projects.

Shell Canada Ltd., targeted for a buyout by parent Royal Dutch Shell plc, is nearly doubling its investment spending in 2007 to C$4 billion ($3.5 billion) from C$2.7 billion set aside this year. More than C$3.6 billion is directed for capital expenditures, and another C$400 million is tagged for related exploration and pre-development expenses.

ChevronTexaco Corp. set new records in the fourth quarter, nearly doubling net income from a year ago and beating analyst expectations. However, natural gas and oil output fell 9% globally, and most of the losses were blamed on U.S. asset sales and Hurricane Ivan shut-ins.

Despite a $24 million loss taken on the sale of a UK-based retail energy marketer, San Diego-based Sempra Energy reported first quarter earnings that more than doubled results in the first quarter last year ($197 million, or 85 cents/share, versus $88 million, or 42 cents/share).

Having invested more than $650 million in Mexico since 1997, Sempra Energy International is looking to continue developments to keep pace with the 8-10% annual energy growth expected in Baja, Mexico over the next ten years.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. completed its $230 million purchased of Cody Co., the parent company of Cody Energy LLC, doubling its reserves in the Gulf Coast region (see Daily GPI, June 22). Cabot paid Cody shareholders $181 million in cash and two million shares of its common stock with a value per the agreement of $24.497 per share.

Doubling its presence in the U.S. utility market, the UnitedKingdom’s National Grid Group Plc agreed yesterday to buy NiagaraMohawk Holdings Inc. for $8.9 billion in cash, stock and assumeddebt. The U.K. power producer plans to merge Niagara with twoMassachusetts utilities acquired earlier this year, boosting itsU.S. customer base to more than 3.2 million.

Driven by a vision of Nova Scotian production more doublingwithin four years, an ambitious junior Canadian natural-gas hunterhas set out to prove that offshore targets are no longer just theplayground of the industry majors.