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Even with the “full plate” of terrorist-related issues, appropriations bills and concerns about the economy confronting the Senate now, it should be able to act on the White House’s latest intended nominee for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Joseph T. Kelliher, before it adjourns for the year, a Senate committee press aide said. At the same time, the administration’s choice of Kelliher, a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy, for FERC received high marks on Capitol Hill and from the energy industry.

On the heels of the announcement that it had acquired a majority of TransCanada’s natural gas marketing business (see related story this issue), Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. reported that it has made its first production acquisition by purchasing interests in 18 natural gas and oil producing fields as well as 206,000 acres of mineral rights in South Louisiana from Castex Energy Inc. for approximately $162 million.

On the heels of the announcement that it had acquired a majority of TransCanada’s natural gas marketing business (see related story this issue), Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. reported that it has entered the production business by purchasing interest in 18 natural gas and oil producing fields as well as 206,000 acres of mineral rights in South Louisiana from Castex Energy Inc. for approximately $162 million.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. on Monday closed its $31.3 million deal announced a month ago to buy the Delaware Basin oil and gas reserves and related assets of Denver-based Mallon Resources Corp. (see Daily GPI, Aug 14). The properties had proved reserves of 41.8 Bcfe on Dec. 31, 2000, and include Mallon’s interest in 23 fields with 141 producing wells and 13,741 net acres.

The USX Corp. board of directors has approved a reorganization plan calling for a tax-free spin-off of the steel-related assets into a separate publicly traded company, United States Steel Corp., while the energy business operates as Marathon Oil Corp. Plans for the split came nearly 20 years after USX acquired the Houston-based oil and gas E&P company in 1982.

Building on modest short-covering related advances achieved Friday, natural gas futures plowed higher yesterday as traders returned to the office to find that meteorologists had not backed away from their forecasts calling for hot temperatures across an extended area of the country over the next 10 days. With that, the September contract took over as the prompt month at Nymex with a neat, 15.9-cent gain to close at $3.353.

The return of some extra heat, along with the general resumption of business-related demand after a weekend, were enough to generate a moderately strong rebound in the cash market Monday. Most of the increases ranged between a nickel and a quarter, but the removal of LDC OFOs allowed dollar-plus jumps at all California points except Malin.

Houston-based Enron Corp., which may be shoring up a long-range plan to sell some of its assets not related to its massive trading arm, may consider selling off its growing wind power subsidiary as soon as this year, according to Enron Wind’s managing director, Andreas Reuter.

FPL Group Inc. of Florida announced that Moray Dewhurst has been elected to the position of CFO of the $7 billion electricity-related services company. He will assume his new position in mid-July. Dewhurst previously served as a senior partner and director of Dean & Co., a management consulting and investment firm that he cofounded in 1993. While at Dean, he worked closely with FPL Group and its businesses. Under contract with FPL Group and Entergy Corp., Dewhurst had the responsibility for leading the financial integration team for the two companies prior to their merger being terminated in April. He also has assisted FPL Group’s independent power producer subsidiary, FPL Energy, in assessing its operations and subsequently redesigning business processes, as well as developing analytical tools and techniques to enhance business operations and planning.