Publicly

The White House publicly confirmed yesterday what has been rumored for months — that Commissioner Pat Wood III will be the next chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

A publicly held independent, San Diego, CA-based Royale Energy, announced Tuesday it successfully drilled a new well in the historically heavily drilled dry gas Rio Vista field in the Sacramento Basin in eastern Contra Costa County. No flow rates were given, but two earlier wells in the vicinity drilled last year are producing 2 MMcf/d collectively, said Don Hosmer, a Royale Energy executive in San Diego.

Plans to separate Baltimore Gas & Electric’s parent Constellation Energy Group into two publicly traded corporations remain on track for completion this year, Christian Poindexter, the company’s CEO, told shareholders at the end of last week.

Denver-based Barrett Resources Corp., still stating publicly that it is barring the doors against a hostile takeover by giant Royal Dutch/Shell, postponed its annual shareholder meeting set for early May, as it continues to search for strategic options to Shell’s cash offer of $55 per share. Barrett rejected the amount as inadequate, but Shell has continued the pursuit, extending its offer through midnight last Friday.

Enron Energy Services and Macerich Co., a publicly traded realestate investment trust, announced a 10-year energy managementagreement for more than 40 wholly-owned and joint ventureproperties. Enron will manage the supply of electricity and naturalgas and provide related energy management services for theproperties, including energy infrastructure upgrades.

New Jersey’s largest publicly owned utility has asked stateregulators to take natural gas competition to its next logical stepby giving it the green light to begin selling gas to all customerclasses at market-based rates in 2003.

New Jersey’s largest publicly owned utility has asked stateregulators to give it the green light to begin selling natural gasat market-based rates in 2003.

Plans for a new publicly-traded energy giant were revealed last week, as Duke Energy and Phillips Petroleum announced their intentions to form a midstream company called Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS). Expected to have an enterprise value of between $5 and $6 billion, DEFS will result from a merger of Duke’s gathering and processing businesses (also called Duke Energy Field Services) with Phillips’ Gas Processing and Marketing (GPM) unit. Subject to approval by the FTC under the Hart-Scott-Rodino act, the deal is expected to close by the first quarter 2000.

Plans for a new publicly traded energy giant were revealedyesterday, as Duke Energy and Phillips Petroleum announced theirintentions to form a midstream company called Duke Energy FieldServices (DEFS). Expected to have an enterprise value of between $5and $6 billion, DEFS will be the result of a merger of Duke’sgathering and processing businesses (also called Duke Energy FieldServices) with Phillip’s Gas Processing and Marketing (GPM) unit.Subject to approval by the FTC under the Hart-Scott-Rodino act, thedeal is expected to close by the first quarter 2000.