Merge

Royal Dutch Shell plc said Tuesday it will merge its active U.S.-based Coral operating companies into Shell Energy North America (US) LP. The merger is expected to be completed in 2008 and affects Coral Energy Resources LP, Coral Power LLC, Coral Energy Management LLC and Coral Gas Marketing LLC.

Independent proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended that Aquila Inc. shareholders vote for the company’s plan to merge with Great Plains Energy Inc., Aquila announced Thursday.

Calgary-based Advantage Energy Income Fund and Sound Energy Trust (SET) have struck a deal to merge to create a natural gas-focused energy trust with an enterprise value of about C$2.7 billion (US$2.58 billion).

Dominion, which is selling off its extensive North American exploration and production (E&P) businesses, on Thursday said it will merge subsidiary Consolidated Natural Gas Co. (CNG) into Dominion Resources Inc. to streamline its corporate structure.

Two of Canada’s largest energy trusts, Calgary-based PrimeWest Energy Trust and Shiningbank Energy Income Fund, agreed last week to merge in an all-stock deal valued at C$1.25 billion. The combined trust will create a natural gas-heavy producer with an undeveloped land base of more than 1.1 million net acres primarily focused in west central Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the Williston Basin in the United States.

Two of Canada’s largest energy trusts, Calgary-based PrimeWest Energy Trust and Shiningbank Energy Income Fund, agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valued at C$1.25 billion that will create a natural gas-heavy producer with an undeveloped land base of more than 1.1 million net acres primarily focused in west central Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the Williston Basin in the United States.

Two Scana subsidiaries, South Carolina Pipeline Corp. (SCPC) and SCG Pipeline Inc. (SCG), filed a FERC application Monday to merge, forming a new 2,032-mile open-access interstate gas pipeline transportation only system with about 661,000 Dth/d of estimated firm capacity.

Noting that it went public with its offer to merge with NorthWestern Corp. only after the targeted company made the offer public last week, Black Hills Corp. CEO David Emery Monday emphasized that his company considers it imperative that it expand in the regulated utility sector. He made the comments during a conference call with the financial community. Black Hills filed a Securities and Exchange Commission 8K filing Monday, and it expects to close the deal by the end of next year, Emery said.

Consent order in hand, Chevron Corp. and Texaco Inc. became the latest of the majors to merge, after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave its approval on Friday. The new company, ChevronTexaco Corp., moves to fifth place on the majors’ list, following arduous negotiations that actually began more than two years ago (see NGI, June 7, 1999). The companies finally came to terms last October, and cinched the deal after Texaco agreed to spin off several of its businesses (see NGI, Aug. 13; Oct. 23, 2000).