sale

El Paso Corp. closed the previously announced sale of El Paso Oil & Gas Canada Inc. to BG Group for $352 million in cash. The assets will now be called BG Canada Exploration and Production Inc. and include 630,000 acres of net undeveloped oil and gas acres. El Paso will use the proceeds to reduce debt. The company hopes to lower its long-term debt to $15 billion by year-end 2005 from a 3Q2003 level of $22.5 billion. To date, El Paso has announced or closed $2.9 billion of the $3.3 to $3.9 billion of assets sales targeted under it debt reduction plan. In addition, El Paso announced that it has now received all subsequent waivers relating to its revolving credit facility and other financing transactions that are required to address potential issues related to its recently announced reserve revisions.

El Paso Corp. closed the previously announced sale of El Paso Oil & Gas Canada Inc. to BG Group for $352 million in cash. The assets will now be called BG Canada Exploration and Production Inc. and include 630,000 acres of net undeveloped oil and gas acres. El Paso will use the proceeds to reduce debt. The company hopes to lower its long-term debt to $15 billion by year-end 2005 from a 3Q2003 level of $22.5 billion. To date, El Paso has announced or closed $2.9 billion of the $3.3 to $3.9 billion of assets sales targeted under it debt reduction plan. In addition, El Paso announced that it has now received all subsequent waivers relating to its revolving credit facility and other financing transactions that are required to address potential issues related to its recently announced reserve revisions.

Following a request by its staff, the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) has begun an investigation into the sale and distribution of natural gas and electricity in the state by entities that may not be certified.

CMS Energy said it would use the proceeds from the sale of its Marysville Gas Liquids subsidiary to reduce debt. The Jacksonville, MI company said Thursday it had sold the terminal to Marysville Hydrocarbons Inc. for an undisclosed amount.

The collapse of the merchant energy sector isn’t over and numerous assets will continue to be put up for sale. The question for a private equity fund entering this energy smorgasbord is whether to dine first on the meat-and-potatoes regulated operations or to go straight for the attractive but far more risky unregulated merchant power dessert.

The collapse of the merchant energy sector isn’t over and numerous assets will continue to be put up for sale. The question for a private equity fund entering this energy smorgasbord is whether to dine first on the meat-and-potatoes regulated operations or to go straight for the attractive but far more risky unregulated merchant power dessert.

Dynegy Inc. said it would use the net proceeds from the sale of an additional $50 million of debentures on Tuesday to repay a portion of its $244 million Term B loan outstanding under its restructured credit facilities. Dynegy recently completed the private placement of $175 million of its 4.75% convertible subordinated notes due in 2023, and the initial purchasers of the debentures exercised their option to purchase the additional debentures on the same terms.

Energy West Corp. subsidiary Energy West Propane Inc. completed the sale of its assets in Montana and Wyoming, including a terminal in Superior, MT, Jack’s Wholesale Propane Inc., an affiliate of Northern Petro NGL Marketing Inc., for $1.4 million, including $750,000 in cash and a promissory note for $620,000, payable over 46 months. Energy West will realize a pretax gain of $185,000 as a result of the transaction. With the completion of this transaction, Energy West has substantially exited the wholesale propane business in Montana and Wyoming.

Anadarko Petroleum shares jumped more than 5% Wednesday to $44.93 on a report by Reuters that the company has hired Credit Suisse First Boston to negotiate with potential buyers. Anadarko would not confirm the details of the report.