Litigation

California’s attorney general announced Friday the state has made final an amended version of its previously announced $417 million settlement with Tulsa-based Williams Companies regarding a renegotiated 10-year power contract that is reduced by $1.4 billion in terms of the state’s obligations.

A California state court judge in San Diego Wednesday added to the state energy crisis litigation glut by agreeing that a class action lawsuit against El Paso Corp. and Sempra Energy’s two natural gas utilities can move forward, setting a preliminary trial date of Sept. 4, 2003. At issue are allegations the nation’s largest interstate gas pipeline company and the two Southern California utilities conspired to keep out competing pipelines that would have prevented the severe wholesale gas price spikes at the California-Arizona border in the 2000-2001 time frame.

After years of litigation over what will be the largest saltcavern storage project in the Northeast, NiSource subsidiary MarketHub Partners (MHP) finally has completed its first cavern well onthe Tioga Gas Storage project in northern Pennsylvania.

After years of litigation over what will be the largest saltcavern storage project in the Northeast, NiSource subsidiary MarketHub Partners (MHP) finally has completed its first cavern well onthe Tioga Gas Storage project in northern Pennsylvania.

NiSource is taking its $68/share offer ($5.6 billion) directlyto Columbia Energy Group shareholders today and said it has filedlitigation against Columbia and its directors in the DelawareChancery Court in an attempt to gain an opportunity to nominate adirector to fill a vacant seat on Columbia’s board. The seat wasvacated in May when one of Columbia’s directors retired, butColumbia failed to call for a shareholder vote on a replacement atits annual meeting last month, NiSource said.