Preceding

Washington Gas is expanding its customer choice program inMaryland, targeting 100,000 residential customers or one-third ofthe total, and all of its 25,000 commercial customers in the state.The company said it received approval for the expansion from theMaryland Public Service Commission.

Amoco’s $1.9 Billion North American exploration and productiondivestment to focus on top producing areas is nearly complete.”These divestments allow us to focus our resources on the mostpromising producing areas in our exploration and productionportfolio, which has given us a higher quality asset position inNorth America,” said L. Richard Flury, executive vice president forexploration and production. “We believe this rationalized assetposition is a step toward reaching our corporate goal of 15% returnon capital employed by 2001.”

Enron Corp. announced first quarter earnings and reportedincreased operating results in each of its core business groups.The company also reported another loss for Enron Energy Servicesdue to start-up costs.

Swelling open interest and large long positions held byspeculators finally caught up with the May Nymex contract onMonday, as the spot month torpedoed 17.8 cents lower to close theday at $2.479. In so doing, the contract easily broke below the uptrendline that was lending major support in the $2.51-53 area. “Ifeel like I’ve been kicked in the face,” one source said.

Most of the additions to natural gas and crude oil reservesduring the past decade have come from existing fields rather thanfrom new discoveries, and the trend is likely to continue well intothe future, according to a new study issued by the Gas ResearchInstitute (GRI) yesterday.

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) has introduced legislation that wouldrequire pipelines seeking to seize private property for projects topersonally notify affected landowners by certified mail of theirintention at the outset of FERC proceedings, giving them theopportunity to “participate meaningfully” in the process.

Enron Oil & Gas reported first quarter net income of $27.0million, 17 cents/share, compared to $23.1 million, 15 cents/share,for first quarter of 1997. Discretionary cash flow increased to$124.0 million in the first quarter of 1998 compared to $110.1million for the comparable quarter in 1997. Net operating revenuesincreased to $199.8 million in the first quarter of 1998 comparedto $180.7 million a year ago.

Peace broke out in the Canadian natural gas community. A newpact on competition in the industry virtually assures constructionof the Alliance Pipeline Project, approval of the merger betweenTransCanada PipeLines and Nova Corp., and a settlement on a newtolling regime on Nova’s Alberta gathering grid.

Despite $15 oil and the whopping $810 million federal CentralGulf of Mexico lease sale three weeks ago, oil and gas prospectorshad enough shekels remaining to make the Texas General Land Officesale April 7 the largest high bids sale in 22 years and the seventhlargest in the history of the 150-plus-year old agency.