Entire

Houston Exploration Co. said Monday it would acquire the entire shallow-water Gulf of Mexico asset base of Transworld Exploration and Production Inc., which is 75% natural gas, for $155 million.

Marathon Oil Corp. and its Canadian subsidiary sold their entire upstream interests in Western Canada to Husky Oil late last month for $588 million, or about $8.50/boe. The deal was part of Marathon’s strategy announced earlier this year to sell off more than $700 million in non-core, low return assets in order to pay down debt, strengthen its balance sheet and acquire assets with higher returns and better cash flow.

Marathon Oil Corp. and its Canadian subsidiary have sold their entire upstream interests in Western Canada to Husky Oil for $588 million, or about $8.50/boe. The deal is part of Marathon’s strategy announced earlier this year to sell off more than $700 million in non-core, low return assets in order to pay down debt, strengthen its balance sheet and acquire assets with higher returns and better cash flow.

Columbus, OH-based American Electric Power (AEP) announced Wednesday that it is soliciting bids for all 29 of the power generation units (4,497 MW) of its AEP Texas Central Co. subsidiary (formerly known as Central Power and Light) in an effort to accurately determine their market value and the company’s associated stranded costs. The assets include 12 separate plant sites with a net book value of $1.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2001.

Northern Natural Gas declared force majeure at its Hugoton (KS) Compressor Station as a result of tornado damage Thursday night. The entire station was shut down, affecting about 50,000 MMBtu/d at the Hugoton N&S, Stevens County #4 and Stevens County #6 points. NNG estimated that a return to service would occur “sometime in the p.m.” Saturday (May 17).

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) authorized Columbia Gas of Virginia to expand its customer choice program across its entire service territory over the next several weeks. Under the expansion, Columbia will give 200,000 retail sales customers the opportunity to choose their gas supplier.

Amid updated weather forecasts confirming the warming trend that is set to engulf the entire Eastern half of the nation this week, natural gas futures dove lower Tuesday, as traders returned from the holiday weekend and promptly liquidated long positions initiated early last week. February took the selling squarely on the chin, gapping lower at the open bell, and not once looking back as it came just one tick away from notching a new contract low at $2.094. It closed with an even 13-cent decline at $2.106.

FERC last week ruled that KN Wattenberg Transmission LLC’s entire interstate pipeline system is gathering in nature and thus exempt from Commission jurisdiction.

While the series of terrorist attacks on the United States Tuesday will “change the entire agenda of Congress and the federal government” during the fall session, a key legislative analyst doubts that energy legislation will be placed on the back burner as a result.