Joins

Houston-based Michael Petroleum Corp. said it invested $1.5million in a venture to participate in the drilling of 38 naturalgas wells for Pemex in the Burgos Basin in Northern Mexico. MichaelFarmar, Michael Petroleum president, said the project has drillednine gas wells to date and anticipates drilling the remaining 29wells before Dec. 31, 1999.

Avista Energy, a Washington Water Power (WWP) affiliate,continued its expansion onslaught Thursday by announcing that itacquired Vitol Gas and Electric LLC, a full service energy marketerserving the eastern U.S. Terms of the agreement were not madepublic. The deal is expected to close in early 1999.

With its California power marketing arrangement with Enron nowhistory, Amway Corp. has hooked up with Columbia Energy, asubsidiary of Columbia Energy Group, to market gas and electricityto residential and small business users, first in Georgia and thennationwide. The deal potentially could add more than 1.3 millionretail energy buyers across the country to Columbia’s already largeenergy customer base of 100,000 in seven states.

Elizabeth Anne “Betsy” Moler, former deputy secretary of theU.S. Department of Energy and chair of the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission,is leaving the public sector for privatepractice at a major law firm.

Same story, different company. That summarizes third quarterresults reported recently by Anadarko Petroleum. Like everyoneelse, Anadarko suffered from lower gas and oil prices last quarter,and the hurt shows plainly in its financials.

ARCO said it will implement a cost reduction program designed toreduce before-tax costs by more than $500 million over the next twoyears. Approximately $350 million of the cost savings are expectedin 1999. The cost reductions will fall largely into fourcategories: upstream operating and support costs; explorationspending; downstream operating and support costs; and costs for thecorporate center and support services. ARCO’s increasedconcentration on core exploration and production areas and therecent divesting of non-strategic assets have facilitated theadditional cost reductions.

Connecticut Energy Corp. said subsidiary CNE Energy ServicesGroup signed a letter of intent with Conectiv to join a liquefiednatural gas (LNG) storage joint venture. This new business, to benamed Total Peaking Services (TPS), will use an existing 1.2 BcfLNG storage facility in Milford, CT. The venture has received FERCauthorization to provide open access storage; but is awaitingtariff approval, expected later this spring.