Intends

Williams disclosed that its former telecommunications business, Williams Communications Group, intends to exercise a purchase right for certain assets for which Williams is guarantor. WCG expects Williams to pay for the fiber-optic network and associated facilities, pursuant to the guarantee, which was negotiated in September 1999, in return for unsecured debt or equity. Williams CEO Steve Malcolm said the action already was factored into earnings, balance sheet and liquidity numbers reported in filings and presented to investors during the past week. “In the event we need to perform on this obligation, we have developed more than sufficient financial capacity to do so,” he said. The issue involves credit support of $750 million for a lease agreement related to the communications assets. The expected closing date for the transaction is April 1. Williams Communications said the move will help preserve its flexibility to achieve a previously-announced comprehensive balance sheet restructuring. The proposed restructuring is intended to support uninterrupted business service and, at the same time, minimize any impact to customer and vendor relationships. Discussions with the company’s banks and others have been expanded to include multiple restructuring options, including the use of a negotiated Chapter 11 reorganization as a restructuring mechanism. The company may decide to pursue that alternative to allow for a more orderly process that maximizes enterprise value.

In what it dubs as a “synthesis” of proven operating steps in both eastern and western markets, California’s non-profit electricity transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, last Wednesday released its draft 2002 Market Design Plan as a starting point that it plans to refine later this month with input from market participants. The plan’s overall objective for what eventually must be a federally approved blueprint is to shrink the grid operator’s real-time market and provide more future wholesale price stability, according to Cal-ISO’s chief architect for the plan.

CMS Trunkline LNG said it intends to nearly double the sendout capacity of its Lake Charles, LA, facility to 1.2 Bcf/d from 630 MMcf/d to accommodate a substantial increase in LNG imports, particularly by BG LNG Services, which signed a 22-year contract in May for all of the existing capacity at the Lake Charles terminal. Under the $150-200 million expansion plan, CMS would add a second unloading dock, a fourth storage tank and additional pumps and vaporizers.

CMS Trunkline LNG said it intends to nearly double the sendout capacity of its Lake Charles, LA, facility to 1.2 Bcf/d from 630 MMcf/d to accommodate a substantial increase in LNG imports, particularly by BG LNG Services, which signed a 22-year contract in May for all of the existing capacity at the Lake Charles terminal. Under the $150-200 million expansion plan, CMS would add a second unloading dock, a fourth storage tank and additional pumps and vaporizers.

An affiliate of Houston-based Nabors Industries Inc. said it intends to make a cash offer to acquire all of the common shares of Command Drilling Corp. for C$3.30 per share. 19552 Yukon Inc. said the bid represents a 20% premium over the closing price of the Command shares on Sept. 14, 2001.

Some time next month, the City of Long Beach municipal natural gas utility intends to ink a deal with one of three competing suppliers for up to 24 months at rates that will be the lowest in Southern California, according to the muni’s general manager.

In an attempt to improve the company’s cash flow and earnings, Southern Union Co. said it intends to implement corporate reorganization and restructuring, a move it expects will save $35-40 million annually. As part of the restructuring, Southern Union said it is offering voluntary early retirement programs in some of its operating divisions and a limited reduction in workforce within its corporate division.

In an effort to commercialize its proprietary technology for converting natural gas to liquids, Conoco said on Monday that it intends to build a $75 million demonstration plant in Ponca City, OK. The company said the economics of its gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology are often better than those of converting gas to liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Houston-based Nuevo Energy Co. has accepted the resignation of Doug Foshee as chairman, president and CEO. Foshee intends to pursue other interests. With Foshee’s resignation, the board of directors appointed Isaac Arnold, an outside Nuevo director since 1990, as chairman. The board also announced that Phillip Gobe, currently Nuevo’s COO, has been appointed interim president and CEO. Nuevo has initiated a search for a new president and CEO, and Gobe will be considered as part of the search. “Phillip Gobe and the rest of Nuevo’s senior management team have the full support of our board of directors,” said Arnold.