Sells

Aquila Inc. will exit its once promising gas and power business in Australia, where it had been an active participant since 1995, after agreeing to sell its assets for nearly $589 million to a consortium representing Australian-based AlintaGas, AMP Henderson and their affiliates.

Midstream services independent Sago Energy LLC said Friday it had acquired the Jameson Gas Plant and Gathering System, located in West Texas, from Devon Energy Corp. No financial details are disclosed.

Progress Energy’s subsidiary Progress Energy Ventures is paying $188 million in cash to Williams Energy Marketing and Trading to acquire a full-requirements, long-term power supply agreement with Jackson Electric Membership Corp., which is located in Jefferson, GA. Jackson is one of the largest electric cooperatives in the United States, serving more than 171,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in 10 metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia counties.

Powder River Basin Gas Corp. (PRBG) said it has signed a definitive agreement to have a “majority percent” of its capital stock and management control acquired by Evansville, IN-based Imperial Petroleum Inc. The companies said they expect the deal to close on April 1.

Facing potential civil action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly improper accounting practices, Nicor Energy continued to sell off its customer contracts last week. The company, which is a partnership between Nicor Inc and Dynegy sold energy supply contracts covering about 8,000 commercial and industrial gas and electric customers in three midwestern states to Constellation Energy Group for an undisclosed sum.

Powder River Basin Gas Corp. (PRBG) said Tuesday that it has signed a definitive agreement to have a “majority percent” of its capital stock and management control acquired by Evansville, IN-based Imperial Petroleum Inc. The companies said they expect the deal to close on April 1.

In an effort to help finance the company’s recent pipeline acquisition, National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) said Monday that its timber subsidiary has entered into an agreement with an undisclosed buyer to sell approximately 70,000 acres of its timber property located in Venango, Elk, Jefferson, McKean and Potter Counties in Pennsylvania and Allegany County, NY.

Continuing on with its goal of divesting $3.4 billion in assets for calendar year 2003, El Paso Corp. announced that it has agreed to sell all of the outstanding shares in Enerplus Global Energy Management Co. to Enerplus Resources Fund for approximately $32 million.

Williams said it completed the expected sale of its retail petroleum travel center operations to Pilot Travel Centers LLC for $189 million, which will be added to a growing total of proceeds from assets sales that are expected to reach $2.5 billion this year compared to $3.9 billion in 2002.