Energy

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a proposed consent orderrequiring Shell Oil subsidiaries Tejas Energy and Transok to divest171 miles of the 690 miles of natural gas gathering lines recentlyacquired from Coastal Corp. subsidiaries in Oklahoma and the TexasPanhandle.

NICOR and GE Power Systems signed a memorandum of understanding,calling for GE to supply NICOR with GE-Elliott Energy Systems (EES)turbo alternators for sale to customers in the midwestern UnitedStates.

The Board of Directors of KeySpan Energy appointed four newofficers. Frederick M. Lowther, 54, of Dickstein Shapiro Morin& Oshinsky has been named general counsel. Steven L. Zelkowitz,49, has been named senior vice president and deputy generalcounsel. Michael J. Taunton, 42, has been named vice president ofinvestor relations. Lawrence S. Dryer, 39, has been named vicepresident of internal audit.

Candidates to head up three main divisions of the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission being created in the on-going FERC Firstrestructuring should have their applications in to the Commissionby Sept. 24, according to a government job notice being circulatednationwide. A salary between $106,412 and $125,900 comes with thedirectors’ positions for the Office of Markets, Tariffs and Rates,the Office of Strategy and Organization Management, and the Officeof Administrative Litigation.

Mitchell Energy & Development agreed to settle the lastremaining 25 North Texas groundwater lawsuits brought against acompany subsidiary. Plaintiffs alleged in the suits that Mitchell’soil and gas operations in Wise County, TX, affected theirgroundwater.

El Paso Energy’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) plans a newinterconnect in Casey County, KY, to deliver an additional 200MMcf/d of gas into Texas Eastern Transmission (Tetco) to servemarkets in parts of Kentucky and southern Ohio. The interconnect isexpected to be in service by Nov. 1. Tennessee plans to acceptnominations at the new point for November 1998 gas flow.

MCN Energy Group warned investors Friday it’s not likely to meetanalysts’ 1998 and 1999 earnings expectations of $1.64/share and$2.02/share, respectively, and reiterated its plan to sell itsexploration and production business, which includes more than 1.3Tcf of proved reserves, making the company among the top 20 largestindependent producers in the nation.

Westcoast Energy is leading an international consortium awardeda $250 million contract by Pemex Exploracion y Produccion (PEP) toconstruct and operate a 250 MMcf/d offshore gas compression andliquids recovery facility. The facility is to be located near theexisting Akal-GR platform in the Cantarell oil field in the Bay ofCampeche, Gulf of Mexico. The project will help to recover gas fordelivery into the Mexican national pipeline system, which is beingexpanded to meet the needs of new gas distribution concessions andpower generation plants.

Another class action suit was filed against Triton Energy onbehalf of shareholders alleging the company misrepresented thevalue of its assets and prospects for the company. The most recentsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District ofTexas on behalf of those who acquired common stock on or betweenMarch 30 and July 17, says statements by the company and certainexecutives drove its stock price up during the class period.