Friday

By the close of trading last Friday, Columbia Energy Group’s$6.7 billion unsolicited bid for Consolidated Natural Gas still hadthe edge on Dominion Resources’ all stock offer worth $5.9 billion,but Dominion’s stock price was gaining ground.

Replacement of its A-Line north of Stanfield, OR, is keepingKingsgate capacity of PG&E GT-NW limited to 2,250 MMcf/d-370MMcf/d under the April norm-through Friday. Hydrostatic testing ofthe line at Station 6-A will further limit Kinggate to 2,190 MMcf/dApril 19-22.

The Maryland General Assembly Friday passed legislation to openthe state’s retail electric industry to competition. Gov. ParrisGlendening is expected to sign the bill into law next week. Thelegislation will phase in residential customer choice over athree-year period beginning with one-third of residential customersJuly 1, 2000. Residential customers choosing to keep their utilityas supplier would get rate cuts of 3% to 7.5% to be determined bythe Public Service Commission. The rate cuts would last four yearsand then rates would be deregulated.

Consolidated Edison and Orange and Rockland Utilities passed amilestone on their way to merging with approval of the transactionFriday by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC). Themerger also has been approved by the New Jersey and Pennsylvaniaregulators and FERC. Con Ed plans to acquire all O&R’s commonstock for $58.50 per share, or about $790 million. O&R willbecome a wholly-owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison and willcontinue to operate as a separate company. The utilities areawaiting the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission andcompletion of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review by the U.S.Department of Justice and expect to close the transaction by nextmonth.

El Paso said Friday its Waha (TX) GE turbine is off-line againdue to a failed coupling on the field gas compressor. If expeditedtemporary repairs over the weekend prove successful, the pipelinesaid, the unit is expected to return to service around Wednesday.Otherwise, a new coupling will be available around April 6; anothershutdown would be required for its installation. The IMLWAHA pointis limited to 65 MMcf/d during the outage.

CMS Energy settled charges from the Federal Trade CommissionFriday that its acquisition of Panhandle Eastern and TrunklinePipeline limited competition for natural gas in 54 counties inMichigan. The settlement allows CMS to close the deal basicallyunchanged, but it did delay the closing by many weeks, a CMSofficial said.

CMS Energy settled Federal Trade Commission charges on Fridaythat threaten to hold up its acquisition of Panhandle Eastern andTrunkline Pipeline from Duke Energy. The FTC charged the purchasewould limit pipeline competition in 54 counties in Michigan. Thesettlement allows CMS to close the deal basically unchanged, but itdid delay the closing by many weeks, a CMS official said.

CalEnergy Co. Inc. and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. formallyclosed their merger Friday, marking the first time that anindependent power producer has acquired a traditional gas andelectric utility. The Iowa Utilities Board’s (IUB) recent approvalof the deal cleared the way for it to be completed.

Chevron announced late Friday it adjusted its 1998 earnings toaccommodate $637 million in “potential losses” due to an OklahomaSupreme Court decision last week affirming a lower court’s rulingagainst the integrated oil and gas company. Chevron said it stillplans to seek aggressive review of the case.