International

The board of directors for the London-based InternationalPetroleum Exchange urged its members Wednesday to accept a buy-outoffer from five outside investors rather than accept a proposedmerger bid from the New York Mercantile Exchange. The 475 membersof the IPE will vote on the sale at an extraordinary generalmeeting held on July 30. The board threatened to resign if theoutside investor sale failed.

Dallas-based Panda Energy International announced plans to builda 1,000 MW generation plant in Coweta, OK, near Tulsa. The plant’smaximum daily quantity for gas consumption will be about 170,000MMBtu/d. Gas supply and transportation agreements are expected tobe finalized in the next several months.

A partnership between Sempra Energy International and PublicService Enterprise Group (PSEG) won approval from the board ofdirectors for Chilquinta S.A. to buy Chilquinta Energia, for $830million, Chilquinta announced Tuesday. Chilquinta Energia isChile’s third-largest electricity supplier, serving 405,000customers. Along with Chilean electricity supply, the Sempra – PSEGpartnership would acquire Energas, a Chilean natural gasdistribution company. Energas began service in May of 1998 andplans to reach 50,000 customers by 2003. Both Sempra and PSEG saidthe deal will progress their Latin America growth strategies andlook forward to entering into the Chilean electric market, whichhas grown 8% each year since 1991, compared to 1%-2% in the U.S.The deal is contingent on the buyers’ review and approval ofschedules for the definitive stock purchase agreement. Both Sempraand PSEG expect the purchase to be accretive in 1999. The $830million would net 90% of Chilquinta Energia’s stock for thepartnership. Upon final acquisition, Sempra and PSEG will be ableto make a tender offer to acquire the remaining 10 percent ofChilquinta Energia shares from other shareholders.

Sempra Energy International is in the running for its third gasproject in Mexico with its bid to build distribution infrastructureto serve the cities of Torreon, Gomez, Palacio, Ciudad Lerdo, andDurango with the La Laguna-Durango system. Mexico’s EnergyRegulatory Commission (CRE) will announce the winning bidder nolater than May 20.

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.

Major energy players, such as Enron, PG&E Corp. and EdisonInternational, are butting heads increasingly overmulti-million-dollar assets and future market leverage out West ina series of “electricity range wars” sparked by the advent of morecompetition.

The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), based in London,accepted an offer from NYMEX last week to look into a possiblemerger, which would create a “single global energy exchange.” Anagreement to join the exchanges would affect companies which sellcommodities internationally in both markets. The domestic gasmarkets in both countries, however, would see little impact.

In a new analysis of power demand growth, Colorado-basedResource Data International (RDI) projects slightly over 186,000 MWof primarily gas-fired electric generating capacity will have to beadded by 2010 nationwide to meet burgeoning demand and to replaceretiring nuclear and non-nuclear capacity. The cost approaches $90billion.

In a new analysis of power demand growth, Colorado-basedResource Data International (RDI) projects slightly over 186,000 MWof primarily gas-fired electric generating capacity will have to beadded by 2010 nationwide to meet burgeoning demand and to replaceretiring nuclear and non-nuclear capacity. The cost approaches$90-billion.