Northern Border Partners, LP, announced it has completed itspreviously announced acquisition of gas gathering facilities in thePowder River and Wind River Basins in Wyoming for $200 million fromEnron North America Corp. The purchase includes ownership positionsin Bighorn Gas Gathering and Fort Union Gas Gathering in the PowderRiver Basin and Lost Creek Gathering in the Wind River Basin. Inconjunction with the acquisition, NBP and ENA have agreed toprovide complementary services in the Basins. NBP will own andoperate physical assets and will provide gathering andtransportation services. ENA will continue to provide gas purchaseand sales, finance, risk management and producer outsourcingservices. The partnership also declared an increase in cashdistribution yesterday to $0.70 from $0.65 per unit. The indicatedannual rate is now $2.80 per unit. The increase becomes effectivewith the third quarter distribution payable on Nov. 14. It is thepartnership’s fourth increase in the last three years. NorthernBorder Partners, LP owns a 70% general partner interest in NorthernBorder Pipeline Co., which owns a 1,214-mile interstate pipelinesystem that transports approximately 23 percent of all Canadiannatural gas imports into the United States.
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Apache Seals Deal With Occidental
Keeping with the company’s self-imposed completion date, Houston-based Apache closed the deal on its previously announced $385 million acquisition of an Occidental Petroleum subsidiary (see NGI, Aug. 7).
Industry Brief
Keeping with the company’s self-imposed completion date,Houston-based Apache closed the deal on its previously announced $385million acquisition of an Occidental Petroleum subsidiary (see DailyGPI, Aug. 3). The subsidiary which ownsinterests on the Outer Continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico will befinanced under a two-part agreement. Part of the cost will be paid upfront, and the remaining cost will be paid for in futureyears. Included in the sale, are properties in 32 fields, half of themoperated, on 93 blocks with total proved reserves of 56.8 millionbarrels of oil equivalent. Net production of the properties throughyearend are expected to yield an average of 107 MMcf/d and 7,800 bblof oil a day. The proved reserves have an estimated six year reservelife.
Transportation Notes
Williams said Thursday it expects to resume normal operationsSunday, one day earlier than previously anticipated, on Line Segments490 and 491. The pipeline had declared a force majeure for thesegments following a compressor failure at its Riner Station (seeDaily GPI, Aug. 3).
People
Stacey L. Gerard has been named associate administrator for theDepartment of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS). Shepreviously was director of the Office of Policy, Regulations andTraining in the OPS.
Midwest Hub of Enron, Peoples Takes Form
The Midwest Energy Hub, a previously announced joint partnershipbetween Peoples Energy and Enron North America designed to expandPeoples’ existing market hub, is now up and running. Despite stillwaiting for approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC),the new company began offering services to Chicago-area customerslast week. The original agreement between the two companies wasforged last October (see NGI, Oct. 10).
Midwest Hub of Enron and Peoples Takes Form
The Midwest Energy Hub, a previously announced joint partnershipbetween Peoples Energy and Enron North America designed to expandPeoples’ existing market hub, is now up and running. Despite stillwaiting for approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), thenew company began offering services to Chicago-area customers earlierthis week. The original agreement between the two companies was forgedlast October (see Daily GPI, Oct. 5).
People
Dennis J. Seeley has been named president of National Fuel GasSupply Corp., the gas pipeline and storage arm of National FuelGas. Co. He previously served as senior vice president and directorof National Fuel Gas Distribution.
TXU Selling Processing to New Company
TXU of Dallas sold substantially all of the assets of its gasprocessing subsidiary in Texas, TXU Processing Co. (TXUP), toCantera Resources Inc. for $105 million. TXUP (previously known asEnserch Processing Inc.) has 162 full-time employees, now bound forCantera, and owns and operates nine gas processing plants suppliedby more than 1,800 miles of company-controlled gathering lines withinstalled gathering compression of more than 34,500 horsepower.
Industry Brief
Equitable Resources completed the previously announcedacquisition of the Appalachian production assets of Statoil Energyfor $630 million. The deal makes Equitable by far the largestproducer in the Appalachian basin with 2.2 Tcf of proven reservesand 12,600 gas and oil wells. Equitable said the acquisition wouldbe immediately accretive to earnings. “The addition of these assetsand resources to Equitable’s Appalachian business represent ahigh-value, low-risk opportunity for improving the overall qualityand efficiency of our production assets,” said Murry S. Gerber,Equitable’s president and CEO. “The benefits of this acquisition gobeyond making Equitable the leading gas supplier in the Appalachianbasin. We now have a dual platform for growth and increasedprofitability by ‘high-grading’ our total Appalachian portfolio.”Statoil’s production assets are contiguous to Equitable’sAppalachian properties and consist of 1.2 Tcf of proven gasreserves and 6,500 natural gas wells in West Virginia, Kentucky,Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
