Pending

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) last Wednesday said that he is hopeful that electricity titles included in comprehensive energy bills pending in the House of Representatives and the Senate can be successfully reconciled when conferees from the two chambers meet to iron out differences between the two sweeping legislative proposals.

WGL Holdings, Inc. said Tuesday it has delayed releasing its company’s earnings due to a notice of hearing issued by the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. The hearing will look into the basic rates, charges and terms and conditions of service of its subsidiary, Washington Gas Light Co.

Unocal Corp. increased its offer, albeit slightly, on the pending share exchange offer for Pure Resources Inc. Subsidiary Union Oil Company of California made the amended offer Wednesday after a special committee of the Pure Resources’ board of directors obtained an injunction to stop the share exchange a day earlier (see Daily GPI, Oct. 2).

After pending at FERC for five long years, El Paso Corp’s ANR Pipeline told the Commission last week that it was calling it quits with the troubled Independence Pipeline and companion SupplyLink projects, which had been conceived and designed to bring cheap Canadian natural gas from the Midwest to East Coast markets.

Speaking on his company’s pending mega-merger with Phillips Petroleum, Conoco CEO Archie Dunham told a Houston civic association that size does not matter much in a corporate merger; it’s how well the companies fit together that is important.

Enron Corp.’s former outside accountant Arthur Andersen and the accounting firm’s law firm are apparently close to completing an internal review into when and how its employees destroyed documents relating to the bankrupt company’s business practices. Details of the report by Davis Polk & Wardwell could be released this week, but Andersen also indicated that its investigation is ongoing.

In light of the “national importance” and “precedent-setting character” of the pending bid-rigging and price-manipulation complaint against El Paso Natural Gas, California regulators and the state’s three principal utilities have asked that they be given a chance to make a pitch for their case before the full FERC.

In light of the “national importance” and “precedent-setting character” of the pending bid-rigging and price-manipulation complaint against El Paso Natural Gas, California regulators and the state’s three principal utilities have asked that they be given a chance to make a pitch for their case before the full FERC.

A judge in Roswell, NM, has consolidated five lawsuits that are pending against El Paso Natural Gas as a result of the August 2000 fiery explosion on the pipeline’s South Mainline in New Mexico that killed 12 members of two extended families (see NGI, June 25; Aug. 28, 2000).