Fund

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy has agreed to sell 3,145 MW of gas-fired generation assets to Tenaska Power Fund LP for $1.635 billion in cash, subject to closing adjustments. The transaction is expected to yield net proceeds of approximately $1.5 billion, and Constellation anticipates a one-time, pre-tax gain of approximately $245 million.

Investment fund Patriot Exploration Co. Inc. said Wednesday it will contribute $14.5 million to a joint gas development project in the Big Horn Basin of northwestern Wyoming with Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. The partnership will cover drilling on more than 160,000 net and 217,000 gross acres in the basin, which the Potential Gas Committee estimates holds 3.14 Tcf of gas but is significantly underexplored.

Investment fund Patriot Exploration Co. Inc. said Wednesday it will contribute $14.5 million to a joint gas development project in the Big Horn Basin of northwestern Wyoming with Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. The partnership will cover drilling on more than 160,000 net and 217,000 gross acres in the basin, which the Potential Gas Committee estimates holds 3.14 Tcf of gas but is significantly underexplored.

In a friendly deal, Canadian natural gas producer Shiningbank Energy Income Fund has agreed to buy Calgary-based Find Energy Ltd. for C$381 million ($338 million). The deal will boost Shiningbank’s weighted-to-gas output by 22%, pumping up production to 27,000 boe/d from its current 4,900 boe/d.

Hedge fund JANA Partners LLC may have gotten just what it wanted from Houston Exploration Co. (THX). The THX board last week unanimously voted down JANA’s $1.8 billion unsolicited acquisition proposal. But following the announcement, a JANA spokesman called the decision “a positive development.”

A major shareholder, the hedge fund Pirate Capital LLC reiterating its strong opposition, told independent directors of Mirant Corp. Monday it would call for a special meeting of the company’s stockholders if Mirant did not immediately drop its unsolicited bid for NRG Energy, Inc., prompting the Atlanta-based merchant power plant operator to quickly abandon the hostile takeover, although it continued to characterize the deal as a “compelling opportunity.”

Pogo Producing Co. said it is selling an undivided 50% of each and all of its Gulf of Mexico leasehold interests to Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Mitsui & Co. (USA) Inc. for $500 million. Proceeds will fund the previously announced acquisition of Latigo Petroleum Inc. (see Daily GPI, April 18).

With action by the California state teachers’ retirement fund Wednesday, state Treasurer Phil Angelides announced that all of the pieces of his so-called “Green Wave” investment strategy are now in place. As a board member of two of the nation’s largest public sector pension funds, Angelides has convinced them to invest in companies producing clean energy technologies and those with acceptable environmental protection records.

Williams has completed the sale of three straddle plants in southern Alberta to Inter Pipeline Fund of Calgary for C$715 million (US$536 million). The sale includes Williams’ 100% ownership interest in the Cochrane and Empress II plants, and Williams’ 50% ownership interest in the Empress V facility. The sale does not include Williams’ olefins business that extracts natural gas liquids and olefins from oil sands refining near Fort McMurray, AB. The liquids are then fractionated into various products at a Williams facility near Redwater, AB. In addition to the proceeds from the sale, the transaction will release approximately $30 million in U.S. funds of letters of credit and prepayments back to Williams by the end of the year. Williams expects to record an estimated pre-tax gain of $190 million in U.S. funds on the sale, which will be reported in discontinued operations in its third quarter financial results.