Received

Florida Gas Transmission received the go-ahead for constructionof its Phase IV expansion to serve investor-owned utilities (IOUs)and industrials in Florida, minus capacity that would have servedthe state’s first merchant power plant.

SCANA Corp. and Public Service Co. of North Carolina, Inc.(PSNC) received their merger approval from the SEC yesterday. Theapproval represents the last remaining federal or state approvalneeded to complete the transaction. The companies expect tocomplete the merger today.

The upper management at Kinder Morgan received a shake-upyesterday as P. Anthony Lannie was promoted to president of KinderMorgan’s power operations, C. Park Shaper was promoted to vicepresident and CFO and David Dehaemers moved from CFO to vicepresident of corporate development. Richard D. Kinder, CEO ofKinder Morgan, said the appointments strengthen the company’smanagement team. Lannie was president of Coral Energy Canada andsenior vice president and general counsel of Coral Energy, thedownstream gas and power segment of Shell Oil Co. Prior to joiningKinder Morgan, Shaper was president of Altair Corporation, afinancial services firm. He also was previously CFO of a divisionof First Data Corporation.

Debt-laden Forcenergy Inc. of Miami Wednesday receivedconfirmation of its reorganization from the United StatesBankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Building on Monday’s gains, natural gas futures inched higheryesterday as bulls received a boost from strength in the nearbycash market. After thwarting an early sell-off, buyers weresuccessful in bidding the February contract up 4.4 cents to closeat $2.26. That made it four for four trading sessions in which theprompt month has posted higher highs and higher lows.

El Paso Energy Corp. completed its acquisition of Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA. Each holder of Crystal Gas Storagecommon stock received $57 per share in cash in a deal worth $224.6million. “The Crystal assets provide the flexibility, highdeliverability, and multiple pipeline interconnects necessary tomeet the gas supply demands of new plants in the competitive powermarket,” said El Paso CEO William A. Wise.

El Paso Energy Corp. completed its acquisition of Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA. Each holder of Crystal Gas Storagecommon stock received $57 per share in cash. The deal is worth$224.6 million.

Coastal’s Wyoming Interstate Co. has completed construction ofits Medicine Bow Lateral pipeline and begun moving gas. “Wereceived excellent customer response to this project from the verybeginning, and we now are ready to move more of their Powder RiverBasin gas to market,” said Jon Whitney, CEO of Colorado InterstateGas (CIG), which operates Wyoming Interstate (WIC).

Nicor Gas of Naperville, IL, received approval from the IllinoisCommerce Commission (ICC) for a performance-based rate (PBR) planfor gas costs. The company filed the original proposal with the ICCMarch 2, and, with some changes, the ICC approved the plan. NicorGas has 14 days to accept or reject the modified plan. During anine-month review process, testimony was presented by interestedparties including the ICC staff, the Citizens Utility Board and theCook County States Attorney’s office.