Madison

A settlement was announced Monday among federal authorities, the Sierra Club and Madison, WI-based Alliant Energy Corp.’s Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL) utility that eventually may result in replacing 270 MW of coal-fired electric generation with natural gas-fired units.

EOG Resources Inc. has struck a joint exploration and development agreement with Eaglebine formation partners ZaZa Energy Corp. in Walker, Grimes, Madison, Trinity and Montgomery counties, TX.

Reliant Energy has reached an agreement to sell its three New York City power plants to an investor group led by Madison Dearborn Partners and US Power Generating Co. for $975 million.

In order to continue to provide reliable natural gas and electric service to its customers, Madison Gas and Electric Co. (MGE) reported that it has filed an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin that includes replacement power expenses for an extended outage at the Columbia Generating Station.

The various owners of the Black Marlin Pipeline System, a75-mile long natural gas and condensate gathering system in theGulf of Mexico, have sold the line to Williams Field Services for$9.25 million. The line was purchased from Blue Dolphin Energy, a50% owner, MCNIC Pipeline & Processing Co., a 33.33% owner, andWBI Holdings, Inc., a 16.67% owner. The sale includes related shorefacilities servicing the High Island area. Ivar Siem, chairman ofprimary owner Blue Dolphin, said the company had purchased BlackMarlin in early 1999 “during a period when the system hadexperienced lower throughput volumes due to limited drillingactivity in the High Island area. Since then the activity level hasbeen very high and significant additional reserves have beendiscovered,” Siem added. “This is an opportunity for us to realizegood value for the asset. We can re-deploy a portion of the saleproceeds to other niche pipeline opportunities in the Gulf.”

Mississippi River Transmission (MRT) is considering constructionof a new pipeline lateral from Horseshoe Lake, in Madison County,IL, to a connection with Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America inClinton County, IL. The new line would be designed to provide firmtransportation capacity of 230,000 Dth/d.