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Apache Corp.’s definitive agreement to purchase FletcherChallenge Energy’s Canadian and Argentina assets has been in placesince last October, and a company spokesman said yesterday it wasstill a “done deal,” despite an announcement that a consortium madeup of Fletcher investors has made a counter offer to purchase theNew Zealand-based company.

Duke Energy North America (DENA) said it will have more than6,000 Mw of new power generation capacity in place by summer 2002,bringing its total merchant generation portfolio to 15,000 MW.DENA’s merchant portfolio currently includes 6,200 MW of generationlocated in the western, midwestern and eastern regions of theUnited States. The new generation will serve markets in the WesternSystem Coordinating Council (WSCC), the East Central ReliabilityCouncil (ECAR) and the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council(SERC) regions. DENA has begun or soon will begin constructionactivity on six merchant generation facilities totaling more than4,000 MW. The facilities include: the 570 MW Maricopa EnergyFacility in Maricopa County, AZ.; the 620 MW Washington GeneratingFacility located in Washington County, OH; the 620 MW Hot SpringEnergy Facility in Hot Spring County, AR; Murray GeneratingFacility I and II, two 620 MW facilities located on the same sitein Murray County, GA; and lastly the previously announced 1,040 MWmodernization of the Moss Landing facility in California. All areexpected to begin commercial operation by mid-2002. DENA plans toannounce an additional 2,000 MW of generation capacity that alsowould be ready summer 2002. Individual sites and relatedinformation will be disclosed in the second quarter. By summer2001, DENA will deliver six new merchant facilities totaling 3,400MWs. DENA also has more than 13,500 MWs in advanced development andwill construct between 10 and 12 new merchant facilities every yearthrough 2003, expanding its merchant portfolio to more than 23,000MWs.

By 2005, Calpine Corp. expects to have an operating goal of70,000 MW of electric generating capacity in place, including60,000 MW of baseload capacity and 10,000 MW of peaking generation,which would position the San Jose, CA-based company as one of thelargest power providers in the United States.

Today began with one more operational cross-border natural gaspipeline in place than there was last month, as Coral Energy andMexico-based Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) announced yesterday thecompletion of their 104-mile pipeline linking the Pemex pipelinesystem at Arguelles in the Mexico state of Tamaulipas, with Coral’spipeline system on the King Ranch in South Texas.

From coast to coast, utilities and local distribution companies(LDCs) are preparing for the peak natural gas-usage season thiswinter by filing rate hikes with regulators, and bracing theircustomers for inflated gas prices that are still to come.

Pacific Gas & Electric had a customer-specific OFO in placeSunday but did not extend it.

NiSource Inc. last week unveiled the new organizationalstructure that will be in place when its $6 billion merger withColumbia Energy Group is completed, and noticeably absent from theroster was Columbia Chairman, CEO and President Oliver “Rick”Richard III who had fought tooth and nail to fend off NiSource’soverture.

NiSource Inc. yesterday unveiled the new organizationalstructure that will be in place when its $6 billion merger withColumbia Energy Group is completed, and noticeably absent from theroster was Columbia Chairman, CEO and President Oliver “Rick”Richard III who had fought tooth and nail to fend off NiSource’soverture.

Both of California’s two major distributors, Southern CaliforniaGas and Pacific Gas & Electric, had high-pack OFOs in placeSaturday. The one by SoCal Gas applied to all shippers whilePG&E’s was customer-specific.