Energy

Shareholders of Kinder Morgan, Inc. and KN Energy, Inc. approvedthe terms of the previously announced $925 million merger of thetwo companies. Ninety-eight percent of KN stockholders who voted onthe transaction approved a proposal to issue 41.5 million shares ofKN common stock pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement.Additionally, ninety-seven percent of KN shareholders votingapproved a proposal to amend the company’s articles ofincorporation to change the name of the company to Kinder Morgan,Inc. upon completion of the merger. Stockholders of Kinder Morgan,Inc., a privately held company, also approved the merger. RichKinder, chairman and CEO of Kinder Morgan and future CEO of thecombined company said the merger remains on track to be completedin early October. The planned merger will combine the generalpartner of the largest independent refined products pipelinecompany in the U.S. with one of the largest natural gas pipelineoperators.

Amoco Energy Trading, Amoco Producing and Burlington Resourcestold FERC last week in a Section 5 complaint that they are losingmillions of dollars because of El Paso Natural Gas’ poor firmdelivery point allocation procedures at Topock, AZ.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has outlined thestructure of its new Office of Markets, Tariffs and Rates (OMTR),part of its FERC First reorganization. The office, headed by DanielL. Larcamp, will include three geographic divisions of rates andtariffs for gas and electric services. Michael A. Coleman, from theOffice of Electric Power Regulation will serve as director of thewest division; Robert J. Cupina, from the Office of PipelineRegulation (OPR) will serve as director of the central division andAlice Fernandez from OPR will serve as director of the Eastdivision.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved theabandonment by Avoca Natural Gas Storage of its unfinished saltcavern storage facility in southwestern New York State. Theabandonment order issued last week follows Avoca’s bankruptcyproceedings and plans for sale of the facility to Northeastern GasCaverns LLC, a New York company.

A day after a Delaware Judge dismissed one of three NiSourcelawsuits against Columbia Energy Group, NiSource suffered yetanother setback in its battle for a hostile takeover of Columbia.Ohio State Representative David Goodman (R-Bexley), who already haspublicly opposed the merger, has introduced legislation designed toclose a loophole in Ohio law that would allow hostile takeovers ofgas utilities to take place without public review and scrutiny.Goodman was joined as sponsor of the legislation by 77 of the 99members of the Ohio House of Representatives.

Amoco Energy Trading, Amoco Producing and Burlington Resourcestold FERC this week in a Section 5 complaint that they are losingmillions of dollars because of El Paso Natural Gas’ poor firmdelivery point allocation procedures at Topock, AZ.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved theabandonment by Avoca Natural Gas Storage of its unfinished saltcavern storage facility in southwestern New York State. Theabandonment order issued Monday follows Avoca’s bankruptcyproceedings and plans for sale of the facility to Northeastern GasCaverns LLC, a New York company.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is looking forvolunteers for a pilot project for electronic filing of documentsin Commission proceedings over the Internet beginning Oct. 1, 1999.The pilot will test FERC’s computer systems and be limited tomotions and notices to intervene, protests, comments and relatedfilings. Participants must still file paper copies during thetesting period.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced lastweek it wants to hold a half-day public conference Sept. 29 toaddress the “steady flow” of Congressional inquiries into theIndependence and MarketLink pipeline projects. The conference willbe used to gather “supplemental information” on the market need forthe projects but the Commission said it does not intend to reopenthe record on them.