Energy

Duke Energy Power Services (DEPS) has signed a 10-year leasewith the Port of San Diego to operate and eventually replace the706 MW South Bay Power Plant located just south of San Diego in thecity of Chula Vista.

TransCanada Midstream (TCM), a business unit of TransCanadaPipeLines Ltd., bought Alberta Energy Co.’s (AEC) outstandingshares (49.995%) in PanAlberta Resources Inc. (PARI) for $35million plus about $7 million in assumed debt. PARI owns 50% of theEmpress II straddle plant and holds gas liquids extraction rightswith respect to gas volumes of Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd.

Major energy players, such as Enron, PG&E Corp. and EdisonInternational, are butting heads increasingly overmulti-million-dollar assets and future market leverage out West ina series of “electricity range wars” sparked by the advent of morecompetition.

Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) issued the Queretarogas distribution permit to Belgian electric utility Tractebel.Tractebel was awarded the permit as a result of the bid processundertaken by the CRE for the geographic zone, which comprises themetropolitan area of Queretaro, as well as the city of San Juan delRio.

Canadian Occidental Petoleum Ltd., an independent global energyand chemical company, sold oil and gas properties worth $370million in order to take the bite out of low commodity prices, thecompany said Wednesday. This brings CanadianOxy’s 1998 propertysales to $630 million. The company did not disclose who bought theproperties. An additional $235 million of sales are expected beforethe end of January 1999.

Cabot Oil &Gas Corp. plans to acquire the onshore South Louisiana properties of Oryx Energy Co. for about $72 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Houston-based Cabot will purchase 10 fields (six operated, four non-operated) covering 34,345 net acres with 68 producing wells. The acquired producing assets are concentrated in three primary fields that each provide Cabot with a high working interest. These fields make up 80% of the value assigned to the transaction.

Westcoast Energy announced plans to buy an additional 9.1% shareof the now-approved Alliance Pipeline Project from Unocal Corp.,which indicated its interest in selling the share earlier this yearas part of a corporate restructuring. The purchase will increaseWestcoast’s total interest in the project to 23.6% from 14.5%.Westcoast’s total equity in the project is now about $500 million.The sale is scheduled to close by the end of December, subject tothe completion of formal agreements.

Alberta Energy Company (AEC) announced plans to expand thestorage capacity managed by its AECO-C storage hub in Alberta by 10Bcf through a conversion of a depleted field at Peace River Arch innorthwestern Alberta to a commercial storage facility. Thedevelopment will add 100 MMcf/d of injection and withdrawalcapability and has the potential for a further expansion, AEC said.

Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. received approval fromthe Texas Railroad Commission for field rule amendments that willenable the company to more aggressively develop its Barnett Shalegas reserves in North Texas. The new field rules permit Mitchell todrill wells in the Newark East (Barnett Shale) field on as littleas 40-acre spacing. As a result of increased well density, or”in-fill drilling,” the company expects as many as 100 wells withabout 80 Bcf of estimated net gas reserves will be added to theproved undeveloped category. The new locations bring totalundeveloped well locations to about 200 for the field. The companyalso has identified another 100 probable locations that may beadded in the future.