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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge signed House Bill 1331 Tuesday,deregulating many aspects of the state gas industry and paving theway for statewide customer choice to begin Nov. 1.

Sempra Energy Trading made a strategic alliance with MEGMarketing LLC to market energy and energy-related products andservices to municipalities, federal and state government entitiesand major corporations.

Spirit Energy 76, the Lower 48 E&P unit of Unocal, plans toform the Venture 76 Alliance with five U.S. deep-water engineeringand service companies. Each alliance member will bring specificexpertise to the development of Unocal’s deep-water prospects inthe Gulf of Mexico. As opposed to strictly project-focused teams,the alliance will be directly involved in such pre-drillingactivities as field development scenario planning and screeningconcepts for handling deep-water production.

Westcoast Energy said its St. Clair Pipelines subsidiary filedthe last major component required for the Millennium Pipelineproject yesterday with the National Energy Board in Canada. Thecompany filed an application for a $165 million pipeline that wouldlink Union Gas’ Dawn Hub in Ontario to lake crossing facilities tobe built by TransCanada. TransCanada filed an application for thelake crossing facilities earlier this week. St. Clair’s 50-mileMillennium West Pipeline would deliver about 700 MMcf/d of gas toPatrick Point on the shores of Lake Erie.

Semco Energy Gas Co. signed of a three-year agreement withTransCanada PipeLines Ltd. for management of its gas supply. Thecompany also will buy the majority of its gas supplies fromTransCanada for the three years of the agreement, which iseffective April 1, 1999.

With bipartisan and administration support, the legislationcrafted by the Wyoming Congressional delegation last week to givecoalbed methane leaseholders and production companies some relieffrom a recent appellate court decision won rapid and unanimousapproval by the Senate Energy Committee on Wednesday. The bill isexpected to be taken up by the full Senate at any time, and thebill’s language is expected to also become part of a manager’samendment to the Interior Department’s appropriations bill, whichmust be approved before the end of the session next month.

Dynegy has agreed to manage all of Rochester Gas &Electric’s (RG&E) gas supply, transportation and storageassets, and help find ways to cut costs and optimize assets.

Union Pacific Resources Group (UPR) continues to march aheadwith its de-leveraging program, announcing last week that it agreedto sell interests in certain South Texas oil and gas properties toCollins &amp Ware Inc. for $148 million. The sale is scheduled toclose Oct. 30, subject to conditions, with an effective date ofSept. 1.

Cross Bay Pipeline partners the Williams Companies and DukeEnergy signed up KeySpan Energy Development as a third partner inthe project to move gas from interstate pipes in New Jersey to NewYork City and Long Island. The project will make use of existingpipes operated by Duke’s Texas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) andWilliams’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Lines (Transco). KeySpan is asubsidiary of MarketSpan Corp., which is the parent of LDC BrooklynUnion.