Joint

The Midwest Energy Hub, a previously announced joint partnershipbetween Peoples Energy and Enron North America designed to expandPeoples’ existing market hub, is now up and running. Despite stillwaiting for approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC),the new company began offering services to Chicago-area customerslast week. The original agreement between the two companies wasforged last October (see NGI, Oct. 10).

The Midwest Energy Hub, a previously announced joint partnershipbetween Peoples Energy and Enron North America designed to expandPeoples’ existing market hub, is now up and running. Despite stillwaiting for approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), thenew company began offering services to Chicago-area customers earlierthis week. The original agreement between the two companies was forgedlast October (see Daily GPI, Oct. 5).

NiSource Inc. and Columbia Energy Group filed a jointapplication with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)seeking necessary approvals of their planned merger under theFederal Power Act (FPA).

El Paso Energy and The Coastal Corp. announced through a jointproxy statement mailed Friday that special meetings of stockholderswill be held May 5 in Houston to vote on the proposed combinationof the two companies. Stockholders of record on March 17 will beeligible to vote. The merger was announced Jan. 18.

Duke Energy Gas Transmission has named Tom O’Connor, TheopolisHoleman, Dorothy Ables and Richard Kruse to new positions as seniorvice presidents. This new market-oriented executive team willreport to Robert B. Evans, president of Duke Energy GasTransmission, and will be responsible for the management of DukeEnergy’s interstate natural gas pipelines.

BC Gas Inc. and Invensys Energy Metering, a gas metering andservices company, announced the formation of a new meter managementjoint venture yesterday called Measurement Solutions International.The companies said MSI is positioned to manage the metering assetsand services of gas, electric and water utilities that are lookingto strengthen or divest the measurement functions embedded in theirsystems as they refine their core competencies at a time ofderegulation, growing competition and converging utility deliverysystems. MSI’s goal is to afford utilities efficiencies inmeasurement management by spreading the costs of equipment,maintenance, services and logistics over a larger user-base. Formulti-utilities, MSI offers single-source management of gas,electric and water measurement needs. MSI said it also brings theresources necessary for utilities to apply new technologies toenhance their operations. MSI can also assist utility clients indealing with state regulatory commissions on issues associated withmeasurement practices, standards and statistical samplingtechniques.

Southern Company Energy Marketing (SCEM), the energy trading andmarketing joint venture of Southern Energy Inc. and VastarResources, Inc., has named Gary J. Morsches president. Currentlysenior vice president and COO, Morsches will have responsibilityfor all of SCEM’s commercial and administrative functions. He willoversee the trading, marketing, asset management, structuring,research and human resources functions for the company. MarceFuller, previously SCEM’s CEO, was named president and CEO ofSouthern Energy in July.

Rio Bravo Energy, a joint venture between Tidelands Oil &Gas Corp., a Texas-based producer and Hudson SVD, a natural gasgathering and marketing company, announced the formation of SonoraPipeline yesterday. Sonora will own and operate a 53-mile gatheringsystem located in Dimmit and Zavala counties, TX. This line will beinterconnected with Rio Bravo’s Pena Creek Gathering System, whichservices the Chittim Gas Processing Plant recently acquired by RioBravo from Conoco. The plant is a propane refrigeration plant witha nominal capacity of 5 MMcf/d and a liquid fractionation train.The Pena Creek Gathering System which serves the Plant consists of15 miles of gathering and compression facilities.

Peoples Energy Corp. and Enron North America Corp. (ENA), asubsidiary of Enron Corp., are partnering to target the Chicagoenergy market. Enron and Peoples plan to form a joint entity toexpand and enhance Peoples’ existing gas market hub and providemarketing services to the 1.1 Tcf Chicago marketplace. The newentity will optimize 10 to 20 Bcf/year of Chicago area storagecapacity and related transportation and will provide physical andfinancial product and service offerings, such as balancing,storage, exchange, and title tracking for hub customers.