Selling

Unocal Corp.’s Spirit Energy 76 agreed to sell substantially allof its oil and gas assets in Michigan to Quicksilver Resources Inc.for $27 million cash and about $3 million in unregistered commonstock of Quicksilver.

Enron Corp. notified the Securities and Exchange Commission lastweek it is considering an unsolicited offer from an unidentifiedcompany for its 53.5% share of Enron Oil and Gas, one of thelargest independent gas producers in the U.S. According to thesolicitation, the third party would acquire Enron’s shares in EOGand make an offer for all the outstanding shares. It also wouldrequire that Enron dispose of certain other assets.

EEX Corp. agreed to sell substantially all of its oil and gasproperties in Oklahoma and the Hardeman Basin, North Central Texas,for about $32 million in cash. Lariat Petroleum Inc. is acquiringthe properties in Oklahoma, and Key Production Co. Inc. isacquiring the Hardeman Basin properties. Aggregate daily productionfrom these properties is about 15 MMcfe/d of gas.

After a lower open natural gas futures quickly tested thedownside Friday, but the selling dried up, which uncovered someposition squaring into the weekend. With that the January contractwas able to break its string of losses after three days, finishingup 1.8 cents to $1.858. Estimated volume was a light40,799contracts.

Western Gas Resources’ production subsidiary Lance Oil &amp Gasis offering for sale a working interest in the Jonah Field, a largebasin-centered gas accumulation in the northwest portion of theGreen River Basin in southwest Wyoming. Western intends to retainall of its gathering and processing rights in the area following asale.

The futures market continued lower on Friday capping off anextremely bearish week, which saw selling from all segments of themarket-trade, funds and locals. However, beleaguered bulls tooksome solace in a minor victory Friday afternoon when scaled downtrade buying lifted the December contract off its $2.125 low. Asmall but encouraging bounce ensued to recoup a portion of theweek’s losses. The December contract settled at $2.163 Friday, down5 cents for the day and 29.6 cents for the week.

The futures market was poised to continue lower Wednesday, butafter a lower open failed to entice additional selling,short-covering became the feature of the day. That gave theDecember contract the opportunity it needed to trend into positiveterritory yesterday morning, before settling at $2.213 at theclosing bell. Estimated volume was 75,306.

For the third day in a row, the futures market caved under heavyselling pressure Wednesday as traders anxiously unloaded longpositions and initiated fresh shorts. Even major support at $2.24offered bulls no reprieve as sellers pushed the December contractdown 7.5 cents to settle at $2.204.

In a type of deal that is becoming increasingly popular amongmarketers selling to public entities, Aquila Energy has signed tosupply 91 Bcf over 12 years to municipal members of the NebraskaPublic Gas Agency (NPGA) for an advance payment of $162 million.