Kansas

Kansas City, MO’s Utilicorp United Inc. is shopping around, andhas already begun to narrow its options on which “high quality,low-cost fleet of generators” to pair with its wholesale merchantmoneymaker Aquila Energy, management announced yesterday. Apartnership deal is expected to be unveiled within a few months.

As part of a continued streamlining, Kinder Morgan Inc. unloadedall of its Oklahoma, Kansas and West Texas gathering and processingbusinesses last week to ONEOK Inc. In addition, ONEOK agreed to buyKinder’s marketing and trading business as well as certain storageand transmission pipelines in the Midcontinent.

Kinder Morgan Inc. and ONEOK Inc. agreed for ONEOK to buy all ofKinder’s gas gathering and processing businesses in Oklahoma,Kansas and West Texas, the companies announced Tuesday. Inaddition, ONEOK agreed to buy Kinder’s marketing and tradingbusiness as well as certain storage and transmission pipelines inthe Midcontinent.

Following the Tortoise and the Hare maxim that slow and steadyoften wins the race, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) hasdecided to approach retail competition at a turtle’s pace. The KCClast week tossed out the idea of installing statewide customerchoice and instead chose to leave open the possibility that MidwestEnergy, one of the state’s many LDCs, can, if it so chooses, filean application for a small retail pilot program.

Hoping to stir up liquidity on its western gas futures contract,The Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) filed Oct. 8 with theCommodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to convert the contractfrom flat-price to basis. The exchange plans to begin trading basisfutures with the February 2000 contract month upon CFTC approval.The expected start date of basis futures is Nov. 29.

In a move it hopes will boost liquidity on its western gasfutures contract, The Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) filedFriday with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) toconvert the contract from flat-price to basis. The exchange plansto begin trading basis futures with the February 2000 contractmonth upon CFTC approval. The expected start date of basis futuresis Nov. 29.

CMS Energy Corp.’s energy marketing unit, CMS Marketing,Services and Trading (CMS-MST), announced last week the acquisitionof Viron Corp., a Kansas City, MO-based energy services company,from York International for an undisclosed sum. Viron will operateunder the name CMS Viron Energy Services, a subsidiary of CMS-MST.The deal was signed and closed last week.

The Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBT) had an estimated volumefor the first time this month yesterday, but the Board’s managementis not concerned about the overall lack of trading. The KCBT hasrecognized the problem and is in discussions with its customers onhow it can bring its trading floor more to life, a spokespersonsaid, but others openly wonder if there will be a gas pit at theKCBT much longer.

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