Scottish

Scottish upstream operator Weir Group plc is extending its reach into North America’s unconventional natural gas and oil fields with a deal to acquire Houston-based Seaboard Holdings Inc. for $675 million.

Cheniere LNG Marketing and Scottish Power PLC subsidiary PPM Energy Inc., announced a 10-year purchase and sale agreement last week, giving the Cheniere Energy marketing affiliate the ability to sell to PPM up to 600,000 MMBtu/d of gas at a Henry Hub-related index price and calling for Cheniere to allocate to PPM a portion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it procures under certain long-term supply agreements.

Cheniere LNG Marketing and Scottish Power PLC subsidiary PPM Energy Inc., made a 10-year purchase and sale agreement, giving Cheniere the ability to sell to PPM up to 600,000 MMBtu/d of gas at a Henry Hub-related index price and calling for Cheniere to allocate to PPM a portion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) that it procures under certain long-term supply agreements.

Just days after Enron Corp. ended a bid to sell Portland General to Sierra Pacific Resources Corp., Scottish Power Plc apparently decided to fling in an offer for the Oregon-based power utility. The West Coast utility would be a fit geographically with Scot Power’s PacifiCorp, which is headquartered in Portland and operates in six U.S. states. Enron would have received $2 billion from Sierra Pacific, which also would have assumed $1 billion in debt. That deal was first set up in late 1999 but started to fall apart as West Coast power problems continued (see NGI, Nov. 15, 1999). Terms for a Scot Power deal were not disclosed. Portland General has about 700,000 customers and has 2,000 MW of generating capacity. Scot Power’s PacifiCorp is now paying about $1 million a day for buy-in costs that resulted when one of its generators failed in the power crisis. For the past two years, the share price of Scot Power has registered 5% United Kingdom sector underperformance.