Drill

Living up to a commitment to make 2000 the “year of the drillbit,” Apache Corp. said yesterday it will acquire long-livedproducing properties in the Permian Basin and South Texas for morethan $300 million in a definitive agreement with Collins & WareInc., based in Midland, TX.

Vector Energy Corp., created just over a year ago through oiland gas asset acquisitions, is leaving drill bits behind in favorof dot-coms and ISPs. “Nobody cares about oil and gas,” said VectorFounder and President Sam Skipper. Over the next several yearsVector will be either divesting its oil and gas properties ormerging them into another company, he said. Meanwhile it’s headingfor Internet territory, with a letter of intent to acquire onepublicly-held Internet Service Provider (ISP) and promises of anagreement with another with 8,000 subscribers.