Houston

Florida Gas Transmission said Thursday’s line break in its 22-inchmainline in Brazoria County south of Houston (see Daily GPI, June 23) had been repaired Friday morningand nominations at upstream receipt points had resumed with that day’sIntraday 1 cycle. Also, FGT lifted Friday an Overage Alert Day noticefor its market area.

Houston’s Torch Energy Advisors Inc. announced Monday that itformed a wholly owned subsidiary, Torch Energy TM Inc. (TETM).Natural gas marketing, along with refined products, derivativesmarketing and specialty product transactions will now be handled byTETM. Torch and its subsidiaries provide extensive outsourcingservices, including financial and accounting services, oil and gasoperations, hydrocarbon marketing and property acquisitions anddivestitures. Contact Blake Beyer at (713) 756-1881 forinformation.

Houston-based Reliant Energy has shelved plans to potentiallysell its natural gas distribution businesses and its interstatepipeline companies “at least for the near term,” said a companyspokesman.

As it continues to assuage concerned landowners and perhaps keepa positive image in front of regulators, Houston’s Coastal Corp.yesterday touted the benefits of its proposed Gulfstream NaturalGas System LLC affiliate, saying that the Florida pipeline willpump $1.2 billion into the Sunshine state’s economy, most of thatcoming during the construction phase.

Houston-based Reliant Energy has shelved plans to potentiallysell its natural gas distribution businesses and its interstatepipeline companies “at least for the near term,” said a companyspokesman.

Houston’s 3TEC Energy Corp. yesterday announced successfuldrilling results in St. Mary Parish, LA. The Amy Aycock No. 1 wellin the Garden City Field was drilled to a true vertical depth of15,033 feet, with 18 feet of net pay in the Operc 10 formation. Theoperation is expected to be completed by the end of this month.3TEC is the well operator, and it has a 75% working interest in thoperation. The well is the first in a series of 3-D seismicallydefined prospects expected to be drilled in the next year.

One of the tiniest Houston-based development stage companies,Whichonly entered the oil and gas business less than a year ago andwhich hardly had any operating funds at all in its first quarterstatement this year, got a huge boost Friday with a $2.5 millioninvestment from a Colorado Indian tribe. Along with the stockpurchase, the tribe’s fund invested another $480,000 in thecompany’s exploration program, bringing its total investment Fridayto nearly $3 million.

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. yesterday agreed to sell threenatural gas gathering systems for nearly $21 million to WBI HoldingsInc., the natural gas pipeline unit of MDU Resources Group Inc. Thegathering systems in Montana, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, includeoperations that were discontinued for divestiture last September aspart of Kinder’s “back to basics” restructuring program (see DailyGPI, Sept. 16, 1999).

Texas Eastern will replace a main line valve at the discharge ofthe Angleton Compressor Station south of Houston today andThursday, causing the shut-in of the Reliant HL&P,Amoco-Spencer Highway and Big Three Industries meters. The projectpreviously had been scheduled to start Monday, June 5. Due tovolumes currently scheduled in the South Texas/East Texas Zones,the pipeline will not accept any due-pipe nominations or supplylength in TABS-1 pools during this work.