Increases

NUI Corp. said Thursday that subsidiary Virginia Gas co. has completed its acquisition of a natural gas storage field in southwestern Virginia and now owns 100% of the Early Grove storage field. NUI said the field will give Virginia Gas more control to move natural gas supplies, manage storage contracts and develop the storage facility in Saltville, VA.

Infinity Inc. reported Friday that it has acquired leases on an additional 2,500 acres of coalbed methane (CBM) property in its Antelope project in Northwestern Colorado. During a conference call, the company also reported that it is generating additional revenues from the unexpected production of oil at one of the initial gas wells at its “Pipeline” project in Wyoming. The purchase price was not disclosed

Price movement ranged from essentially none to nearly a dime higher for most points Thursday. Small declines at Northeast citygates and larger ones for the PG&E citygate and California border-SoCal gas were the exceptions in one direction, while upticks of 15-20 cents or so more for Malin and intra-Alberta broke the pattern in the other direction.

Denver-based Western Gas Resources Inc. said Wednesday it had increased hedging positions on its equity gas volumes for the rest of this year and through 2002, hedging through the rest of 2001 to 79,000 MMBtu/d, an increase of 29,000 MMBtu/d, at an average price of $4.36/MMBtu. For the second quarter of 2001, Western had hedging positions of 49,000 MMBtu/d, about 50% of its projected equity gas volumes, at an average price of $4.39/MMBtu.

Independent Denbury Resources Inc. said last week it would acquire Covington, LA-based Matrix Oil & Gas, in a deal worth $163 million in cash and stock, including debt. The acquisition, expected to close in July, would boost Dallas-based Denbury’s daily production this year almost 49% over last year, with most of the increase in natural gas. The deal also would increase its presence in the Gulf of Mexico, both onshore and offshore.

Independent Denbury Resources Inc. said Tuesday it would acquire Covington, LA-based Matrix Oil & Gas, in a deal worth $163 million in cash and stock, including debt. The acquisition, expected to close in July, would boost Dallas-based Denbury’s daily production this year almost 49% over last year, with most of the increase in natural gas. The deal also would increase its presence in the Gulf of Mexico, both onshore and offshore.

California softness was the exception to Monday price increases that were in double digits in most cases and continued a general rally that had begun on Friday. Sources attributed the upticks mostly to a further rise in futures, but acknowledged that a widespread warm-up that created some date-specific high temperature records over the weekend was starting to generate some “decent” air conditioning load, particularly in the South and mid-Atlantic.

Gathering, processing and marketing acquisitions in 1999 and2000 propelled ONEOK, Inc. to 36%, 42% and 44% increases in netincome, earnings per share and operating income respectively lastyear over 1999, the company said in announcing financial resultsTuesday.

California Gov. Gray Davis “delivered” on his plan to buy outthe transmission systems of the financially-troubled investor-ownedutilities in the state Friday, outlining the framework of a deal,but with no dollar signs attached and no on-the-record agreementswith the utilities.