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Southern Energy Inc., a unit of Southern Co. is selling its 50%interest in Louisiana Generating LLC to NRG Energy Inc. LouisianaGenerating, which will now be held 100% by Minneapolis-based NRG,was recently confirmed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gerald H. Schiff asthe winning bidder for bankrupt Cajun Electric Power Cooperative’s1,708 MW of fossil-fueled generation. Louisiana Generating offered$1.026 billion for the Cajun assets.

Philadelphia-based Resource America Inc. announced it has signedan agreement to acquire the stock of Viking Resources Corp., aprivately held energy and energy finance company based in NorthCanton, OH, and centered in the Appalachian Basin.

Philadelphia-based Resource America Inc. announced it has signedan agreement to acquire the stock of Viking Resources Corp., aprivately held energy and energy finance company based in NorthCanton, OH, and centered in the Appalachian Basin.

New to the scene as of three months ago, privately held CanadianMidstream Services Ltd. (CMSL) made its first acquisition when itacquired a significant interest in sour natural gas processingfacilities in west central Alberta from Poco Petroleum. Formed inCalgary by four former executives of Pan East Petroleum, which wasbought by Poco in December, CMSL aims to capitalize on assetacquisition opportunities.

Customer response to the open season held by Scana’s proposedCarolinas Pipeline “has far exceeded our expectation,” said SamDozier, vice president of customer service and market development.

Dominion Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Dominion Resources, andRiver Gas Corp., a privately held company based in Northport, Al,said Friday they have jointly acquired lease rights to develop19,000 acres of coalbed methane territory in Alabama’s BlackWarrior Basin. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Thearea produces about 315 MMcf/d of coalbed methane. The jointventure acquired the assets from Pittsburgh and Midway Coal MiningCo. Dominion and River Gas expect to drill approximately 200 wellson the newly acquired acreage over the next three years. Together,the two companies currently own and operate more than 530 coalbedmethane wells in the region which produce 50 MMcf/d. River Gasbegan operation of these properties in 1987 and was one of theearliest operators in the Black Warrior Basin. The Black WarriorBasin is a 35,000-square-mile area in northwest Alabama.

Conoco yesterday held its first meeting of stockholders in 18years following the company’s record-setting $4.4 billion initialpublic offering in October 1998, that launched Conoco’s eventualseparation from DuPont. Conoco CEO Archie Dunham said the finalsplit-off from DuPont is expected to occur in the third quarter ofthis year when DuPont will offer its shareholders the opportunityto exchange DuPont shares for Conoco shares.

After opening at the pivotal $2.00 level yesterday the Maycontract was held to a tight, 3.5-cent trading range, as tradersseemed willing to sell the prompt contract on moves above $2.00 andbuy the market on moves below $2.00. And similar to the priceaction, yesterday’s close had something for everyone. Bulls foundsolace in the market’s ability to finish above $2.00, while bearswere optimistic following the market’s second-straight day oflosses. May slipped 1.7 cents to $2.013.

The Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) andTransQuebec &amp Maritimes Pipeline (TQM) held a ribbon-cuttingceremony last week at the U.S./Canada border to announce completionof the first high-capacity gas pipeline to serve northern NewEngland. Commercial operations, however, are not expected to beginuntil Saturday, March 6. And PNGTS probably will not betransporting its full certificated capacity of 178,000 MMBtu/duntil the end of the year, said spokesman John Flumerfelt, becauseseveral of the power plants and paper mills to be served by thepipeline are not complete.