Grabs

KeySpan Energy, which has been focusing increasingly ondownstream and electric power activities, is considering the saleof its majority ownership of E&P arm, Houston Exploration. Anannouncement Monday said KeySpan and Houston Exploration had beguna process to review “a full range of strategic transactions” andhired J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. as financial advisor.

Dynegy’s California-bound capacity on El Paso Natural Gas wentup for grabs last week, and while the pipeline expects a possiblestampede of customers, they aren’t expected until nearly the end ofthe auction period. With a right-of-first refusal held by Dynegy,bids for the capacity are expected to be higher than last time,too.

PG&E Corp. lured in Thomas Boren, a former top executive atSouthern Co., to lead its PG&E National Energy Group, lastweek, only a few weeks after Boren had announced his retirement atSouthern. Boren, 50, will be president and CEO of the PG&Edivision, which includes PG&E Gas Transmission, PG&E PowerTrading, and PG&E Energy Services.

PG&E Corp. lured in Thomas Boren, a former top executive atSouthern Co., to lead its PG&E National Energy Group, lastweek, only a few weeks after Boren had announced his retirement atSouthern. Boren, 50, will be president and CEO of the PG&Edivision, which includes PG&E Gas Transmission, PG&E PowerTrading, and PG&E Energy Services.

Adding to the lengthy and often heated controversy surroundingits contractual relationship with El Paso Natural Gas, Dynegy hassigned up for another 196 MMcf/d of El Paso pipeline capacity,bringing under its control a total of 1.5 Bcf/d of space on thesouthwestern pipeline.

ONEOK Inc. is building up its midstream presence by agreeing toacquire all the Oklahoma midstream gas gathering and processingassets of Koch Midstream Enterprises for $285 million in cash.

The last of three pilot deregulation programs in Michigan is being launched this month with Michigan Consolidated Gas allowing 75,000 of its customers to sign up to test offers from other gas marketers; and Consumers Energy can’t wait. Consumers announced an aggressive promotional campaign last week with the intent to grab as much of its neighboring LDC’s market as possible. It’s campaign was scheduled to start Jan. 2 with a sponsored Harlem Globetrotters game.

International power generation developer AES Corp. continued anaggressive acquisition strategy yesterday with the purchase of all13.6 million shares of Peoria, IL-based CILCORP, parent of CentralIllinois Light Co., for $65 per share, a 22% premium. The value ofthe transaction is about $885 million.

Illinova Energy Partners, one of the top-30 largest powermarketing operations in the nation, grabbed a foothold in theMichigan retail gas and power market with the purchase of EMC GasTransmission Co. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.