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Equitable Resources Inc. is recording a total of $120 million inrestructuring-related charges, the company said Tuesday, in acontinuing effort started by company CEO Murry Gerber to focus oncore capabilities. Half of the charges will be accumulated becauseof severance, staff reductions and extinguishment of debt.Equitable expects a 20% employee reduction compared to mid-1998staff levels. The other half of the charge is a result of thedevaluation and consequent write-down of selected Gulf region gasand oil properties due to low commodity prices. Overall, Equitableexpects the measures to reduce annual expenses by $20 million in1999.

Shell Chairman Mark Moody-Stuart said yesterday the companyplans to sell 40% of it chemicals business and take a relatedfourth quarter $4.5 billion after-tax charge. He described it as”clearing out the cupboard.” It is the first part of a radicalrestructuring of the company that is designed to achieve $2.5billion in annual cost savings by 2001 and to create greaterefficiency during an extended period of low crude prices andincreasing competition because of consolidation among its peers.

Any price distortions that are being seen in the short-termmarket, particularly with capacity-release transactions, are theresult of FERC policies and regulations, and can’t be pinned on theindustry publications reporting those prices, according to a jointstudy between pipelines and LDCs that was released last week.

Shippers are reacting cautiously to the pipelines’auction-related proposals that would cap the reserve price – theminimum bid that pipes would accept – at the maximum lawful ratefor short-term capacity, and initiate seasonal ratemaking.

Western Gas Resources said Friday it sold its Edgewood gasgathering system and related facilities to Dynegy Inc. for $6.1million, and sold production assets upstream of Edgewood and a 50%joint venture interest in Redman Smackover production project inEast Texas to Vintage Petroleum for $49.7 million. The proceedsfrom the two separate transactions total $55.8 million and Westernsaid it expects to recognize a pre-tax gain of $1 million from thesales in the fourth quarter of 1998. Both transactions closed Oct.29 with effective dates of July 1, 1998 and Nov. 1, 1998,respectively.

Western Gas Resources said Friday it sold its Edgewood gasgathering system and related facilities to Dynegy Inc. for $6.1million, and sold production assets upstream of Edgewood and a 50%joint venture interest in Redman Smackover production project inEast Texas to Vintage Petroleum for $49.7 million. The proceedsfrom the two separate transactions total $55.8 million, and Westernsaid it expects to recognize a pre-tax gain of $1 million from thesales in the fourth quarter of 1998. Both transactions closed Oct.29 with effective dates of July 1, 1998 and Nov. 1, 1998,respectively.

Dynegy Inc. is the only gas-related company so far to publiclypropose an alternative to FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking(NOPR) that seeks to institute industry-wide auctioning ofshort-term capacity in return for lifting the price cap on thatcapacity. “There’s nothing else that’s been made public,” saidPeter G. Esposito, vice president and regulatory counsel.

Regulations related to the construction of interstate gaspipeline facilities took center stage at FERC last week, with theCommission proposing on one hand two initiatives aimed atstreamlining and expediting the certificate process for newprojects, while at the same time seeking through a third measure toexplore the possibility of involving landowners earlier on in theprocess – a move that, while generally viewed as inevitable andeven necessary, could pose added headaches for gas pipelines.

About 80 electric-related companies are due to respond laterthis week to FERC inquiries aimed at determining whether marketmanipulation was a contributing factor to the wild price gyrationsin the Midwest electricity market in late June.