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As mergers and acquisitions attempt to live up to the pace set during 2000, Denver-based MarkWest Hydrocarbon Inc. reported it has more than doubled natural gas reserves with the $51 million acquisitions of Leland Energy Canada Ltd. and Watford Energy Ltd. — two privately owned exploration and production companies based in Calgary. The companies’ current management, which directs both Leland’s and Watford’s operations, will remain intact, MarkWest said.

As mergers and acquisitions attempt to live up to the pace set during 2000, Denver-based MarkWest Hydrocarbon Inc. reported it has more than doubled natural gas reserves with the $51 million acquisitions of Leland Energy Canada Ltd. and Watford Energy Ltd. — two privately owned exploration and production companies based in Calgary. The companies’ current management, which directs both Leland’s and Watford’s operations, will remain intact, MarkWest said.

Unable to live up to revised storage expectations, the natural gas futures market plummeted lower Wednesday afternoon as traders continued to liquidate new longs. For the third time in three days the September contract tested, but failed to break through resistance in the $3.35-40 area, paving the way for intra- and inter-day profit-taking. The September contract bore the brunt of the selling pressure, spiraling 21.5 cents lower to close at $3.081.

AES Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the Department of Justice (DOJ) last month commenced an antitrust investigation related to an agreement between AES Southland LLC and Williams Energy Services Co. The DOJ alleges that the agreement limits the expansion of electric generating capacity at or near certain plants owned by AES Southland. In connection with the investigation, the DOJ sent a civil investigative demand to AES Southland requesting the answer to certain interrogatories and the production of documents. AES Southland is cooperating with the terms of the civil investigative demand, AES noted. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in March of this year ordered Williams Energy Marketing & Trading and AES Southland to justify why they should not be found to have violated the Federal Power Act (FPA) by engaging in actions to drive up power prices in the California bulk market and potentially compromising the reliability of the transmission network (see Daily GPI, March 15). In California, Williams markets power produced from two generating units owned by AES. FERC said its investigation showed that Williams and AES appeared to have financial incentive to prolong outages from the two generating units to drive up prices.

In only six months since going live with its full spectrum of over-the-counter (OTC) products, Online trading platform IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), has made a significant impact on the energy and metals markets. The company said over 42,000 trades have been made on ICE since it commenced trading with a combined notional value of $70 billion. Trading volumes on ICE have been growing exponentially with average daily volume in March up 33% from February.

Koch Energy Trading’s new web site KochEnergy.com went live yesterday, offering awide range of features and in-depth information to select Kochcustomers.

The newest global business-to-business e-commerce marketplacefor the oil and gas industry, PetroCosm, went live on the Internetlast week, offering a neutral marketplace for trading products andservices.

The newest global business-to-business e-commerce marketplacefor the oil and gas industry, PetroCosm, went live on the Internetyesterday, offering a neutral marketplace for trading products andservices.

Commonwealth Edison announced a voluntary pilot program thatwill automatically pay its customers if it fails to live up to itscommitment to reduce electric service interruptions, provide fasterservice restoration when outages do occur and deliver bettercommunication with customers and governmental bodies aboutservice-related issues. Developed in partnership with theMetropolitan Mayors Caucus and the City of Chicago, ComEd said itpledges to automatically pay business and residential customerswhose service has been interrupted as a result ofutility-controlled circumstances. Under the plan, qualifyingresidential and business customers will receive about the averageof one month’s electric service for each outage that exceeds eighthours or if they experience three or more outages, each of four ormore hours in length, during a two-month period. Business customerswould receive $100 credit on their account balance, whileresidential customers would receive a check for $60 for eachqualified outage. In addition, customers whose service isinterrupted for 12 hours or longer will automatically receive fullcredit of their monthly customer charge. Subsequent 12-hour outageswill result in an additional monthly credit for every outageincident. Payments will automatically be disbursed within 30 days,and do not require an additional call from the customer.