Plans

FERC has announced plans to meet on Friday with Midwest stateutility commissioners and officials with the National Associationof Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) to discuss the pricingturmoil that hit the Midwest electricity markets in the last weekof June.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt yesterday announced plans tore-open a large federal reserve site in northern Alaska to oil andnatural gas exploration.

Senate Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) lastweek said he will hold a hearing into the price spikes in theMidwest electricity market after the Senate returns from its recessin September.

Houston Industries Power Generation, a subsidiary of HoustonIndustries, signed an option agreement to purchase a 33-acre sitefrom the R.I. Resource Recovery Corp. This site is the planned home for RI Hope Energy, a 500 MW merchant plant to servederegulated wholesale markets in Rhode Island and New England. RIHope Energy will be in an industrial park currently being developedby RIRRC in Johnston, RI.

The trend of Canadian producer acquisitions by U.S. companiescontinued Tuesday with the announcement that Devon Energy Corp.agreed to acquire Canada’s Northstar Energy Corp. and create anevenly balanced oil and gas producer with 53% of its reserves inthe U.S. and 47% in Canada.

MCN Energy Group announced last week it plans to exit theexploration business, and expects to take a second quarter chargeon earnings of $225 million because of low oil and gas prices andthe under-performance of certain exploration properties in theMidcontinent and Gulf Coast regions.

El Paso Energy, Enron, Peoples Energy and Northern BorderPipeline have formed a joint venture to target prized Midwest gastransportation markets left unguarded when TransCanada Pipelinesand Northern States Power put the Viking Voyageur project on holdearlier this year.

Dynegy Inc. – formerly NGC Corp. – plans to construct agas-fired, four-unit, 600 MW generation facility in RockinghamCounty, NC, and Duke Power, the electric utility of Duke Energysigned a letter of intent to buy the 600 MW of capacity and energygenerated by the power plant.

Tejas Energy, LLC announced plans to build a 75-mile pipeline totransport 90 MMcf/d of gas to the city of Toluca, Mexico, locatedabout 45 miles west of Mexico City. The pipeline will move gas froman interconnect with Pemex Gas y Petroquimica Basica’s pipeline atPalmillas, Mexico to a new local distribution company formed byRepsol, which placed a winning bid for the distribution zoneearlier this year.