Past

In a move rumored for the past few months, Occidental Petroleum(Oxy) took Altura Energy off the hands of Shell Exploration &Production Co. and BP Amoco last week. The $3.6 billion transactionis expected to close within the next few weeks, the companies said.

In a move rumored for the past few months, Occidental Petroleum(Oxy) took Altura Energy off the hands of Shell Exploration &Production Co. and BP Amoco yesterday. The $3.6 billion transactionis expected to close within the next few weeks, the companies said.

After a tumultuous morning rally and retreat, natural gas pickedits way higher yesterday as traders looked past a mixed technicalpicture to focus instead on the possible reemergence of seasonaltemperatures by week’s end. The April contract advanced 2.5 centsto $2.85. However, the real stories were in the out months, whichgalloped higher to post gains of 3.4 cents and 3.5 cents for thesummer and 12-month strips respectively.

Events over the past year at the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission have cast a dark cloud over the fate of the $650 millionMillennium Pipeline project, but that cloud got a lot darker lastweek. NiSource’s announcement that it is buying Columbia EnergyGroup, Millennium’s lead sponsor, for $6 billion with $2.5 billionin debt assumption, may have all but killed the pipeline project.

Events over the past year at the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission have cast a dark cloud over the fate of the $650 millionMillennium Pipeline project, but that cloud got a lot darker lastweek. NiSource’s announcement that it is buying Columbia EnergyGroup, Millennium’s lead sponsor, for $6 billion with $2.5 billionin debt assumption, may have all but killed the pipeline project.

PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. made a gas discovery offshore NovaScotia. In the past year, the company has drilled two explorationwells into geological zones under the Panuke oil field, about 155miles southeast of Halifax. During testing, each well flowed atmore than 50 MMcf/d, the maximum capacity of the testing equipment.The wells, PP-3C and PI-1B, intersected net pay of more than 230feet and 100 feet, respectively.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it replaced 100% of 1999worldwide oil and gas production on an equivalent barrel basis.Over the past five years, Occidental has replaced an average 171%of production. Occidental also said it lowered its finding anddevelopment costs by 65% since 1997, to $3.03 per barrel in 1999.

The new policy statement on pipeline certification, which callsfor incremental pricing of projects filed past a certain deadline,came under fire at FERC last week from a cross-section of interestsin the natural gas industry.

The mid-$2.60s have been a pivotal level for natural gas futuresover the past year. Last November, the December contract managed totrade up to $2.64 — the high price during the “winter thatwasn’t” — before crashing more than a dollar to February lows.Then in July, many market watchers pointed to the August’s abilityto clear the $2.60 level as a harbinger of things to come. OnWednesday once again a line was drawn in the sand at the $2.65level. If the market stays above that level, we can retest thehighs, bull traders insisted. But a settlement below that levelcould spawn a round of selling, countered market bears.