Gulf

Gulf South will begin 45 days of scheduled maintenance Monday on the Montpelier (LA) Station’s Unit #2. Capacity north of Montpelier could be reduced as much as 75 MMcf/d during the work. The pipeline said last Friday it was performing unscheduled maintenance at the Napoleonville (LA) Station. The maintenance will continue until further notice and is capaable of reducing Napoleonville capacity by as much as 75 MMcf/d.

Gulf South will begin 45 days of scheduled maintenance Monday on the Montpelier (LA) Station’s Unit #2. Capacity north of Montpelier could be reduced as much as 75 MMcf/d during the work. The pipeline said last Friday it was performing unscheduled maintenance at the Napoleonville (LA) Station. The maintenance will continue until further notice and is capaable of reducing Napoleonville capacity by as much as 75 MMcf/d.

Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline LP, operator of a major intrastate system located in the Texas Gulf Coast, has filed an amendment to an application to construct a border-crossing pipeline to serve the expanding natural gas demand in northern Mexico.

In an online auction scheduled for 11 a.m. CST Monday, Gulf South will accept bids for 5 million dekatherms of Firm Storage Service (FSS) capacity through its web site (www.gulfsouthpl.com, click “Auctions”). The capacity will be available from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2004. See the bulletin board or call Stacy Franz at (713) 544-5228 for more information.

Progress Ventures, Inc., an affiliate of Florida Power, Carolina Power & Light and North Carolina Natural Gas, paid about $153 million in cash and stock to Westchester Gas Co. for about 140 Bcf of gas reserves, 215 producing gas wells, 52 miles of intrastate pipeline and 170 miles of gas gathering systems in Texas and Louisiana. The purchase price includes about $135 million in common stock and about $18 million in cash.

Northern Natural Gas did not extend a System Overrun Limitation notice for all market area zones beyond Thursday.

Lafayette, LA-based Stone Energy Corp. has agreed to buy a “number” of oil and gas properties in its core of operations, the Gulf of Mexico, for about $300 million. No exact details were released. The independent said that a “substantial portion of the offered price” is attributed to properties “subject to elections by third party working interest owners to exercise their preferential rights.” Stone expects to finance the transaction through a combination of borrowings under its credit facility and other long-term debt instruments, and expect to close before the end of this year. Merrill Lynch is acting as financial adviser.

In sympathy with the largest single-day drop in crude oil prices since the Gulf War, and amid continued fears that a global recession is inevitable, natural gas futures funneled to new 30-month lows Monday, as non-commercial traders extended their short holdings in a market notably devoid of buyers. The October contract was the hardest hit, tumbling 9% or 19.3 cents to close at $1.91. The October contract is set to expire at 2:45 p.m. (EDT) Wednesday, an hour later than other daily settlements this week, in an effort to accommodate the 2:00 p.m. (EDT) release of fresh storage data.

Amerada Hess Corp. reported it has acquired EEX Corp.’s 27.5% interest in the Llano Field located on Garden Banks Blocks 385 and 386 in the Gulf of Mexico for $50 million plus an overriding royalty interest of 1/2 of 1% for the first 100 million boe total production from the Llano Field and 1% on all production thereafter. Amerada Hess estimates that the Llano Field contains gross proved and probable reserves of 125 million boe. Amerada Hess currently operates production of over 130,000 boe/d from four fields in the Garden Banks area. The Llano Field is located 20 miles southwest of the Amerada Hess operated Baldpate compliant tower production facility. Amerada Hess said first production from Llano is expected to occur approximately 18 months after project sanction, which is expected to come in 2002.