Provide

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania last week beat out Equitable Gas inthe bidding to provide service to new commercial and residentialbuildings that are slated to be constructed on a former LTV steelsite on the city of Pittsburgh’s South Side. The site, which isowned by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), currentlyis in the midst of major redevelopment.

Southern Company Energy Marketing signed an agreement to providefour Sithe Energy power plants in New York with 55 MMcf/d of gasfor fuel and to market the 275 MW output. The 15-month arrangementis scheduled to begin this month.

Insignia/ESG, Inc. formed an alliance with Enron Energy Services(EES) to provide energy services for a 215 million-square-footportfolio of commercial and residential properties leased andmanaged by Insignia/ESG throughout the United States. Enron willanalyze energy consumption and cut costs through efficiencyenhancements. “This program will allow us to take advantage ofmarket opportunities that have arisen from deregulation of theenergy industry,” said Stephen B. Siegel, CEO of Insignia/ESG.

CES/Way International was selected by Vandenberg Air Force Basein California and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas to provideenergy conservation measures that could yield nearly 20% savings onutility bills. The subsidiary of Sempra Energy Solutions of LosAngeles, is one of 11 energy services companies that werepre-qualified last year under the Department of Defense (DOD)program to implement energy conservation projects in 46 states,Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. With a total of up to $1.1billion in potential contracts, CES/Way and the other energycompanies can receive project awards of up to $150 million eachthrough the program. Among the other pre-qualifiers are Honeywell,Johnson Controls, Duke Energy, and Xenergy.

New York State Electric and Gas’ indirect subsidiary XENERGYInc. has won a contract to provide gas and power supply procurementand management services for 3,000 state facilities of theCommonwealth of Massachusetts. The first phase of the three-phasecontract begins immediately, and is worth almost $500,000. Thecommonwealth spends $80 million/year on gas and electricity for allits facilities.

Rep. Wes Watkins (R-OK) introduced legislation Wednesday thatwould provide marginal well tax relief for oil and natural gasproducers. This is a “rifle shot approach,” and is not seen as acompanion to the measure on the same issue that Sen. Kay BaileyHutchinson (R-TX) is expected to sponsor later this week.

Crystal Oil Co. of Shreveport, LA, last week closed on itspreviously announced acquisition of Petal Gas Storage Co. Theacquisition of Petal will complement and provide synergies with thesalt dome storage facility already owned by Hattiesburg Gas StorageCo., a subsidiary of Crystal, and which is located less than onemile from the Petal facility. With the acquisition of Petal,Crystal’s subsidiaries will have more than 6.7 Bcf of gas storageworking capacity with the ability to deliver in excess of 670MMcf/d in this major corridor to the northeastern gas markets. JoeAverett, Crystal president, said the acquisition makes Crystal thelargest independent provider of salt cavern gas storage in the U.S.