Rights

Nine months after acquiring MidCon Corp., KN Energy citedimprovements in all areas of operations and reported a markedincrease in earnings for the first three quarters of 1998.

Unocal Global Trade said it signed a 10-year gas sales agreementto supply 72 Bcf of gas to the Public Energy Authority of KentuckyTrust (PEAK), a Kentucky municipal joint action agency. PEAK hasagreed to make a nonrefundable advance payment of $120 million onJan. 1, 1999 and pay a fixed monthly reservation fee over the lifeof the contract. The deal with Unocal follows a similar transactionPEAK negotiated with Marathon for supply this winter.

As part of its ongoing quest to comprehensively reform thenatural gas industry, FERC last week announced that it is planninga series of conferences to tackle issues ranging from its proposedcapacity auction to state unbundling to a pre-filing collaborativeprocess for gas pipeline projects.

Many western producers believe the coal bed methane legislationsigned into law last week by the president puts drilling operationsin the Powder River Basin and other basins heavy in coal gas backon track. Not so, said Amoco Production Co., warning thelegislation (S. 2500) doesn’t accomplish what was intended.

PG&E Corp. suffered an 11% net earnings loss for the thirdquarter, reporting earnings of 55 cents per share ($210 million),compared with 62 cents per share ($257 million) for 3Q97. Thecompany attributed the majority of the decline to utilitysubsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric’s pending 1999 general ratecase and a change in the way revenues are recorded as a result ofthe deregulation of California’s electric industry. The utilitysubsidiary is earning below its authorized rate of return, a trendthat is expected to continue until the rate case is resolved earlynext year.

The stock merger of Kerr-McGee and Oryx Energy creates the No. 4U.S. independent producer with market capitalization of $4 billionand is symptomatic of an industry pushed headlong intoconsolidation by sharply depressed oil and gas prices.

A rate case that fixed the price of Mountaineer Gas Co. salesfor the next three years has led the LDC to seek supply and assetmanagement services from Coral Energy. Coral became the principalgas supplier to Mountaineer through an agreement giving Coralmanagement of virtually all of Mountaineer’s total firmtransportation and storage entitlements.

The gas industry’s share of the U.S. energy market is projectedto soar to 35% in 2010 from just 24% in 1996 if the U.S. followsone possible scenario to meet the requirements of the Kyoto Treaty,the Energy Information Administration said in a report to Congress.In contrast, the industry will grab only two percentage points moreof the energy market over that same period without the treaty.

Indiana Gas Co. and Citizens Gas, Light & Coke said theyplan to appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court an appellate courtdecision issued last week ordering the break-up of their jointventure energy marketing company, ProLiance Energy, which sellsmore than 200 Bcf of gas and 3 million MWh of power per year.