Purchased

Occidental Petroleum Corp. has purchased from Chevron deepexploration rights on 19,834 acres of land adjacent to its ElkHills holdings. Called the Buena Vista field, the Kern County, CA,property is seen by Oxy and some other producers as having hugepotential oil and gas reserves. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed.

TransCanada PipeLines announced yesterday that all of its U.S.midstream assets and its gas liquids trading and marketingoperations have been purchased by Coastal Corp.’s field servicessubsidiary for an undisclosed sum.

A subsidiary of Coastal Field Services has purchased the GilmoreNo. 3 gas processing plant, near Edina, TX, in Hidalgo County fromPG&E Gas Transmission-Texas (PG&E-GTT). The plant wasconstructed in 1997 and has a capacity to extract 6,000 b/d of gasliquids from inlet volumes of up to 125 MMcf/d of gas. Theagreement, signed Nov. 1, also provides for Coastal to controlcapacity both upstream of the plant and exiting the plant.PG&E-GTT will continue to own and operate the Gilmore No. 1 andNo. 2 plants, which have capacity to extract 6,800 barrels per dayof gas liquids from combined inlet volumes of up to 140 MMcf/d.PG&E-GTT also will continue as operator for the Gilmore No. 3plant. “This acquisition reflects Coastal’s strategy of integratingnatural gas infrastructure in areas where Coastal has significantexploration and production interests,” said Coastal CEO David A.Arledge. “Due to ongoing drilling successes and recentacquisitions, South Texas is one of Coastal’s fastest-growingnatural gas production areas.”

Northeastern Gas Caverns LLC, a New York company, has purchasedall the salt cavern drilling rights, licenses and equipment ownedby the bankrupt Avoca Natural Gas Storage Co. for $8 million,promising to revive the project, once highly touted as the firsthigh-deliverability salt cavern storage in the Northeast. NGC alsohas agreed to assume a portion of Avoca’s secured debt.

Northeastern Gas Caverns LLC, a New York company, has purchasedall the salt cavern drilling rights, licenses and equipment ownedby the bankrupt Avoca Natural Gas Storage Co. for $8 million,promising to revive the project, once highly touted as the firsthigh-deliverability salt cavern storage in the Northeast. NGC alsohas agreed to assume a portion of Avoca’s secured debt.

In an attempt to expand its Gulf Coast influence, MidcoastEnergy Resources Inc. purchased Southern Industrial Gas Corp.(SIGCO), a Gulf Coast distributor, Tuesday. Terms of thetransaction were not disclosed.

Peoples Energy said it was “extremely disappointed” in orders byIllinois Commerce Commission (ICC) that would sharply reduce thegas rates the LDC and affiliate North Shore Gas could charge theircustomers under fixed-price plans filed last fall. The utilitiessaid they cannot accept the ICC rulings and informed the agencythat they will remain instead under their existing pricingstructure.

NiSource has named former Vastar CEO William A. (Andy) Lang asthe new president and COO of TPC Corp., which it purchased fromPacifiCorp for $150 million in April. Lang and several other newofficials have been hired to rebuild TPC’s energy marketingoperations and grow its existing portfolio management business.

CMS Gas Transmission and Storage Co. continued its activitybinge Wednesday as its subsidiary CMS Continental Natural Gaspurchased Anson Gas Marketing and the Midcontinent Gas Pipelinefrom Chesapeake Energy Marketing. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed.