Senior

While affirming Kerr-McGee Corp.’s ‘BBB’ long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings and its ‘A-2’ short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said Monday that the company’s outlook was revised to stable from positive.

Dynegy Inc. got rid of the last asset it held in Northern Natural Gas Co., announcing Wednesday it had sold $90 million in 6.875% senior notes due May 2005 for $96 million in cash.

The senior executive bonuses for this year are gone, some of the long-term executive incentives have been eliminated, capital spending has been reduced even more, and up to $2 billion more in assets will be sold. As El Paso Corp.’s chairman noted, the interstate pipeline leader is not reacting, but rather responding to what shareholders and the marketplace now demand. “We are doing what management is supposed to do,” explained CEO William Wise on Thursday. “We are all sharing the pain.”

The senior executive bonuses for this year are gone, some of the long-term executive incentives have been eliminated, capital spending has been reduced even more, and up to $2 billion more in assets will be sold. As El Paso Corp.’s chairman noted, the interstate pipeline leader is not reacting, but rather responding to what shareholders and the marketplace now demand. “We are doing what management is supposed to do,” explained CEO William Wise on Thursday. “We are all sharing the pain.”

Elizabeth Moler, former FERC chair and now senior vice-president at Exelon, last Wednesday urged the Commission to start providing some certainty in the area of regional transmission organization (RTO) formation, noting that several utilities are drawing a line in the sand on spending more money on RTO-related development until that certainty is offered.

Moody’s Investors Service Wednesday confirmed the ratings of The Williams Companies, Inc. at Baa2 senior unsecured and its subsidiaries but changed the outlook to negative from stable. The ratings agency cited the potential bankruptcy and contingent liabilities of the company’s former subsidiary, Williams Communications Group (WCG), but noted Williams is negotiating to take over payments for WCG debt and “eliminate certain trigger events.”

Tulsa-based ONEOK Inc. has promoted Ed Farrell, president of Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. (ONGC) to senior vice president administration. The promotion takes effect Sept. 1. Farrell, 58, has been with ONEOK since 1995. Sam Combs, now western region vice president of ONGC, will become president of ONGC, and Combs will be succeeded by Dan Walker, now vice president of operations for ONGC and Kansas Gas Service Co. Roger Mitchell, manager of corporate communications and advertising for ONEOK, also was promoted to eastern region vice president of ONGC.

The board of directors of New York Mercantile Exchange Inc., (NYMEX) last week voted to elect J. Robert (Bo) Collins Jr. as president. Collins, until now the senior vice president of natural gas trading at El Paso Merchant Energy, has been serving on the NYMEX board since March as a trade representative. Before joining El Paso in 1997, Collins was a natural gas and crude options market maker with Pioneer Futures on the floor of the Exchange.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. has repurchased $10.5 million principal amount of its 10% senior notes due in 2007 in a private transaction, reducing the principal on the notes to $129.5 million from $140 million. The Irving, TX-based company funded the repurchase with its existing commercial bank line of credit, increased by $12.5 million to $125 million recently. With the repurchase, Magnum Hunter said it expected to achieve interest savings of about $500,000 over the next 12 months. Management had pledged to continue its focus to reduce debt and improve the balance sheet, said CEO Gary C. Evans. He said since the beginning of 2000, Magnum Hunter had improved debt-to-equity to 63% from 82%.