Houston

A proprietary storage technology developed by a Houston-basedfirm could “obviate” the need in the short term for some of thepipeline capacity additions that have been proposed to meet thepower generation-fueled growth in gas demand anticipated for theNortheast market, says a company official.

Koch Midstream Services Co. of Houston bought West Texasgathering and treating assets from Glossop Gas Co. Koch acquiredGlossop’s Chenot Putnam Gathering System and Treating Plant inPecos County, TX. The treating plant is capable of processing 10MMcf/d. The gathering system includes 33.5 miles of high-pressurepipeline. The system also includes existing production.

Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced a common stockoffering of 6.25 million shares. Proceeds of about $240.6 millionbefore expenses are to be used for general purposes, including U.S.gas and oil projects. The offering is Anadarko’s first since it wasspun off from Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line in 1986. Moody’sInvestors Service changed its rating outlook for Anadarko’s fixedincome securities to stable from negative based on increasingproduction, reserve replacement at reasonable finding costs, aswell as the common equity issuance. Anadarko has replaced more than200% of production for the past five years and in 1998 replacedmore than 500% of production at finding costs below most of theindustry, Moody’s said. The addition of mainly gas reserves lastyear lowered oil reserves to about 53% of the total.

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced one of its top executives,Steven Miller, 53, will take over as president, CEO and chairman ofits Houston-based subsidiary, Shell Oil Co. July 1 with theretirement of Jack Little who turned 60 last year. Little had beenpresident for a year. Miller, who will give up his managingdirector titles with the parent company, said in a writtenstatement, he would like to see the U.S. branch “even more closelyaligned with the rest of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in order todeal with competitive realities more effectively on a globalbasis.”

Combating its poor first quarter performance, Houston-basedApache Corp. dramatically grew its asset base Thursday, paying $715million and transferring one million common shares of stock toShell in exchange for 22 fields in the Outer Continental Shelf ofthe Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Apache expects the transaction to add 20cents/share of value in 1999. The acquisition will go into effectretroactive to March 1.

TransTexas Gas Corp. of Houston said following discussions witha group representing a majority of its parent company’s noteholders it voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The companysaid it believes the filing will allow for completion of itsrecapitalization involving TransTexas and parent, TransAmericanEnergy Corp. Details of the recapitalization plan are expected tobe filed in bankruptcy court within 30 days.

Brad Karp, president of Duke Energy Trading and Marketing, tolda group of producers in Houston Thursday that his company is prettybullish on the gas price outlook long term.

Terry Keane, former vice president of Smith International,Houston, has been named vice president and general manager of theGas Research Institute’s Exploration and Production Business Unitin Chicago.

“Where has all the gas gone now?” asked a Houston-based marketerTuesday as April numbers turned upward going into the home stretch ofbidweek. He was starting to encounter some tightness of supplies inthe Gulf Coast and Appalachian production areas that caused prices tobe bid higher. Echoing a producer’s Friday observation (see Daily GPI, March 29), the market suspectedthat reduced drilling budgets last year may be reflected now in afirmer gas market.