Effort

In an effort to grow its nonregulated business sector, ColumbiaEnergy Group’s Columbia Propane Corp. recently announced a tenderoffer to acquire National Propane Partners for $80.4 million. Theoffer expires April 9. National Propane shareholders will vote inearly May.

In an effort to capture the rewards and pass along savings madepossible by performance-based rates, NIPSCO Industries and its newaffiliate, Bay State Gas, are combining gas supply operations. Thetwo LDCs, which became sister companies when NIPSCO parent NIbought Bay State in February, expect to save as much as $1million/year through combined portfolio management, according toone source.

In an effort to capture the rewards and pass along savings madepossible by performance-based rates, NIPSCO Industries and its newaffiliate Bay State Gas are combining gas supply operations. TheMidwest and New England LDCs manage firm loads of about 500 MMcf/dand most of that will be procured on the daily spot market in thefuture, said NIPSCO’s Dan Gavito, vice president of corporate gassupply.

In an effort to attract large businesses to their districts, twoOregon state legislators introduced a bill recently that wouldprovide $20 million in lottery funds to help build a 64-milepipeline. No engineering study for the pipeline has been conductedso far. The bill’s main supporters, state Sen. Veral Tarno(R-Coquille) and Rep. Ken Messerle (R-Coos County), said some ofthe funds also could be used to build a high-voltage power line.

In an effort to smooth the way for FERC approval of its mergerwith MidAmerican, CalEnergy sold a 50% stake in power generationsubsidiary CE Generation LLC to El Paso Energy last week for $259.6million, including $236.1 million in cash and $23.5 million in debtand other payments. CE Generation is the holding company for 14U.S. power plants with capacity to produce 896 MW of electricity.

Columbia Energy took a hit last week as the Michigan AttorneyGeneral stepped in to halt a misleading marketing effort by thecompany. Due to an objection by the Attorney General over thewording in a mail solicitation sent to Michcon pilot programcustomers, Columbia has consented to end the solicitation and givecustomers the option to choose other suppliers. Currently, Columbiahas signed 12,200 customers away from Michcon.

In an effort to boost liquidity at trading points, theindustry’s two major electronic energy trading systems, AltraStreamline and QuickTrade, announced last week they will become onesystem by the end of the year, possibly sooner. Altra is buyingQuickTrade and QuickTrade Canada from subsidiaries of Dynegy,Sempra Energy and Nicor for an undisclosed sum.

In an effort to attract customers in Semco Gas’ pilotderegulation program, Consumers Energy is offering a deal it sayswill save switching residents up to $70 over three years. Consumersis guaranteeing a price of $2.84 per Mcf for three years, comparedto Semco’s price of $2.94 over the same period of time. Consumerswould start delivering gas to new customers April 1, 1999.

In an effort to encourage retail stock ownership and improveshare liquidity, the KN Energy board of directors announcedWednesday shareholders of record at the close of business Dec. 15will receive a three-for-two stock split and a 7.1% increase inquarterly dividends. The stock will be distributed and the increasewill be paid concurrently on Dec. 31.