Halliburton Co. said it plans to take a $35 million pretaxcharge this quarter to lay off an additional 2,750 employees fromits Energy Services Group. Job cuts are a response to low oilprices and oil company customers’ plans to sharply reduce spendingin 1999.
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Transportation Note
A systemwide entitlement against overtakes that began Dec. 19 onNorthwest remained in effect going into the holiday weekend.Northwest said Wednesday it would continue to operate under a Stage1 entitlement at 3% because it had not seen sufficient improvementin system conditions. However, as of Wednesday the entitlement waslifted on points south of Kemmerer (WY) Station.
Briefs
Gulf Canada Resources said it closed on a 50-50 partnershipagreement with KeySpan Energy for the operation of its natural gasmidstream business in western Canada. Cash consideration paid byKeySpan was $290 million (US$189 million) to Gulf plus a $100million (US$65 million) loan to the partnership. The cash willoffset significant charges Gulf took during the third quarterprimarily related to crude oil asset write-downs.
Devon Signs Fixed-Price Deals, Awaits Merger Vote
Devon Energy Corp. said it signed agreements that fix the priceit will receive for 55,000 MMBtu/d of its 1999 production at$2.01/MMBtu. In addition, Devon currently has agreements covering8,000 MMBtu/d of its Canadian production at an average price ofC$2.32/MMBtu.
Petal Mulling Strong Open Season Response
Petal Gas Storage Co., a subsidiary of Crystal Oil Co., said theopen season for the proposed expansion of its high deliverabilitysalt cavern storage facility near Hattiesburg, MS, received servicerequests exceeding proposed capacity.
Sable Rig Spuds First Production Well
Mobil said the Santa Fe Galaxy II jackup drilling rig hasspudded its first production well at the Sable Offshore EnergyProject (SOEP). The Galaxy II joins the Rowan Gorilla II rig, whichhas been drilling in the area since June. Construction on the $1.3billion SOEP (Mobil share 50.8%), which began in January, is nowwell over one-third completed and on schedule to deliver gas tomarket by November 1999.
Petal Mulling Open Season Response
Petal Gas Storage Co., a subsidiary of Crystal Oil Co., said theopen season for the proposed expansion of its high deliverabilitysalt cavern storage facility near Hattiesburg, MS, received servicerequests exceeding proposed capacity. The open season had beenextended until Nov. 16. Petal is evaluating requests. The proposedexpansion includes leaching an additional salt cavern with astorage capacity of 5.2 Bcf of gas of which 3.2 Bcf would beworking gas. The new cavern, when combined with the existingcavern, will result in a facility with 5.8 Bcf of working gascapacity and a total withdrawal capacity of 600 MMcf/d. The openseason includes additional storage capacity and receipt/deliverypoints on the pipelines of Tennessee Gas Pipeline, Koch Gateway(low-pressure and high pressure systems), Transco, Sonat, Destin,and Florida Gas Transmission.
UtiliCorp Issuing Shares to Pay Debt
UtiliCorp United said it plans to issue seven million shares ofcommon stock with net proceeds to be used to reduce short-termdebt and other short-term obligations incurred for acquisitions,construction and repayment of long-term debt, and other generalcorporate purposes.
NGI Marketer Ranking Notice:
Sempra Energy said the third quarter volume numbers it submittedto be included in NGI’s North American gas marketer ranking wereincorrect. The 3.1 Bcf/d first reported by Sempra excluded therecent acquisition of CNG Energy’s wholesale gas marketingportfolio. The corrected number is 4.5 Bcf/d of gas sold during thethird quarter, which is a 52% increase from 3Q97 and puts Sempra atNo. 12 in the ranking rather than No. 20. KN Energy, Columbia,Tractebel, Texaco, Sonat, El Paso, Williams and Enserch move down anotch because of the change. (Please see NGI or Daily GPI,11/9/98).
Unocal Inks Deal for Advance On 10-Year Contract
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.