Jumped

A new study by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commissionreports the number of idle gas and oil wells nationwide has jumpedby more than 58,000 in four years to 343,030 wells in 2000, whichillustrates the impact of low oil and gas prices over the past fewyears and the potential for increased marginal well production overthe next few years.

El Paso Energy earnings jumped 84% in the first quarter comparedto 1Q99 mainly because of cost savings from its merger with Sonatand the strong performance of its unregulated merchant energy andE&P segments.

Coralconnect.com, Coral Energy’s e-business web site, jumpedinto the online energy trading fray yesterday when it announced anexpansion of its services to include the buying and selling ofcertain gas contracts.

El Paso Energy Corp. and Sonat Inc. completed their $6 billionmerger yesterday. As NGI reported earlier, the two companies jumpedthe final hurdle when El Paso agreed to the FTC’s terms to divestits 100% ownership in East Tennessee Natural Gas Co., Sonat’s 100%ownership of Sea Robin Pipeline Co., and Sonat’s one-third interestin Destin Pipeline Co., L.L.C. following the merger (see Daily GPI,Oct. 25). The transaction creates a transmission system comprisingover 40,000 miles, which El Paso said is the largest system inNorth America both in terms of throughput and miles of pipeline.The new El Paso’s pipeline systems will transport 12.4 Bcf/d-fullyone quarter of the natural gas volumes transported in the UnitedStates. The combined company will be headquartered in Houston.Sonat’s headquarters will remain in Birmingham, AL, and El PasoNatural Gas Co. will remain in El Paso, TX. William Wise,previously CEO of El Paso Energy, will retain his position in thenew company. Ronald Kuehn, who has been CEO of Sonat, is now thechairman of the board for the combined company until Dec. 31, 2000.

Calpine Corp. jumped into the center of the energy industryM&A activity last week, as it made bids to purchase Houston,TX-based Sheridan Energy and acquire 80% of Cogeneration Corp. ofAmerica (CGCA). Both mergers are expected to be completed by theend of the year.

Eastern Enterprises stock price jumped more than 13% last weekto more than $44/share on news it is evaluating strategicalternatives that could include share repurchases, joint venturesor a sale of all or part of the company.

Eastern Enterprises stock price jumped more than 10% yesterdayto $43.62/share on news it is evaluating strategic alternativesthat could include share repurchases, joint ventures or a sale ofall or part of the company.

Two producers-Husky Oil Ltd. and Renaissance Energy Ltd.- havejumped into the ranks of top 10 Canadian suppliers of natural gasto the United States, according to a scorecard kept by the U.S.Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy.

Coral Energy jumped head first into a new arena last Friday withits purchase of 2.8 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fromMalaysia LNG Sdn. Bhd. The shipment will be delivered to CMS’ LakeCharles, LA, LNG import facility later this month. Terms of thetransaction were not released.