Group

Determined to fight to the end, NiSource took its $68/shareoffer ($5.6 billion) directly to Columbia Energy Group shareholderson Friday. It also filed litigation against Columbia and itsdirectors in the Delaware Chancery Court in an attempt to gain anopportunity to nominate a director to fill a vacant seat onColumbia’s board.

NiSource is taking its $68/share offer ($5.6 billion) directlyto Columbia Energy Group shareholders today and said it has filedlitigation against Columbia and its directors in the DelawareChancery Court in an attempt to gain an opportunity to nominate adirector to fill a vacant seat on Columbia’s board. The seat wasvacated in May when one of Columbia’s directors retired, butColumbia failed to call for a shareholder vote on a replacement atits annual meeting last month, NiSource said.

Columbia Transmission Communications (CTC), a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Columbia Energy Group, unveiled plans to beginbuilding the initial leg of its telecommunications network Monday.The initial leg of the overall route will extend 260 miles from NewYork City to Washington D.C. using Columbia Gas Transmission’sright-of-way. It will be capable of providing voice, data and videosignal access to 16 million people. The company is developing plansto extend this network to 2,500 route miles with direct access to35 million people throughout the eastern United States, includinglines to Cleveland, Cincinnati and New Orleans. CTC said usingColumbia’s right-of-way will allow for a competitive, low-costfiber network. Columbia still needs to get landowner approval forthe lines, a company spokesman said, because the right-of-way wasapproved for pipeline use, not telecommunication wire.

Amoco Production Co. of Houston and a large group of royalty owners won a resounding victory at the U.S. Supreme Court last week over the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. The 7-to-1 decision gives Amoco and the royalty owners title to an estimated $200 million worth of coal-bed methane (CBM) gas on the tribe’s reservation in southwestern Colorado and is seen as good news for coal-bed methane development.

As many analysts and observers expected, Columbia Energy Group’sboard swiftly rejected NiSource’s $5.7 billion, $68/share, purchaseoffer last week on the advice of management, legal counsel and afinancial team at Salomon Smith Barney. But NiSource officials saidthey were “undeterred” by the decision and would move forward ondiscussions with Columbia’s shareholders.

CMP Natural Gas, a joint venture between Energy East Corp.(formerly NYSEG) and Central Maine Power Group, started servingcustomers in Windham, ME, last week, giving CMP Natural a bigadvantage over Bangor Gas, the other company vying to distributegas in the state.

CMP Natural Gas, a joint venture between Energy East Corp.(formerly NYSEG) and Central Maine Power Group, started servingcustomers in Windham, ME, yesterday, giving CMP Natural a bigadvantage over Bangor Gas, the other company vying to distributegas in the state.

MCN Energy Group said it has agreed to sell the second of itsfour exploration and production (E&P) packages to an unnamedbuyer(s). The second package is made up of 150 Bcfe of provedreserves in the Midcontinent and Gulf Coast regions and drew atotal of $115 million. The assets sold represent about 13% of thetotal assets MCN put up for sale last year. About 80% of thereserves sold in the second package were gas. Not included wereMCN’s seismic data and exploratory leasehold interests in theCotton Valley Pinnacle Reef play in east Texas, the company said.Those assets apparently will be included in a later sale.

FPL Energy Inc., a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc. plans to build,own and operate a 700 MW gas-fired power plant in Bellingham, MA.FPL Energy signed a purchase agreement with Massachusetts-basedInfrastructure Development Co. (IDC) for the right to build theplant. IDC planned the project, has been working with localcommunities and the state to obtain regulatory approvals and willcontinue to assist FPL Energy with development. Information on theplant’s projected gas consumption was unavailable.