Midstream

Westcoast CEO Michael Phelps announced that Irv Koop has beenappointed executive vice president of Westcoast Energy Inc. andpresident and CEO of pipelines and midstream operations. Inaddition to his ongoing responsibility of overseeing pipeline andfield services divisions, Koop will take on new responsibility forWestcoast Gas Services, Foothills Pipe Lines and other pipelines inwhich Westcoast Energy has an interest, such as Alliance andMaritimes & Northeast. Doug Haughey, previously executive vicepresident of Engage Energy. has been appointed president of thepipeline and field services divisions.

An outage of the TransCanada Midstream Caribou Gas Plant thatwas scheduled Aug. 3-5 has been canceled, according to a WEI FieldServices posting on the Westcoast bulletin board.

TransCanada Midstream (TCM), a business unit of TransCanadaPipeLines Ltd., bought Alberta Energy Co.’s (AEC) outstandingshares (49.995%) in PanAlberta Resources Inc. (PARI) for $35million plus about $7 million in assumed debt. PARI owns 50% of theEmpress II straddle plant and holds gas liquids extraction rightswith respect to gas volumes of Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd.

Gulf Canada Resources said it closed on a 50-50 partnershipagreement with KeySpan Energy for the operation of its natural gasmidstream business in western Canada. Cash consideration paid byKeySpan was $290 million (US$189 million) to Gulf plus a $100million (US$65 million) loan to the partnership. The cash willoffset significant charges Gulf took during the third quarterprimarily related to crude oil asset write-downs.

Seeking greater efficiency in operations, Ultramar DiamondShamrock Corp. (UDS) and a division and two subsidiaries of KochIndustries finalized a joint venture to combine the companies’ gasliquids and petrochemicals operations in Mont Belvieu, TX.