Shed

The Williams Companies Inc. made clear its plans to be a seriouscontender in the Canadian midstream market with an announcementlast week that it has reached an agreement to buy most ofTransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s remaining ownership interests innatural gas liquids (NGL) and extraction facilities and oneprocessing plant, as well as a one-third interest in a keyAlberta-to-U.S. gas liquids pipeline from Dow Chemical Co.

Continuing with efforts to shed non-core assets and improve itsbalance sheet, CMS Energy Corp. announced an agreement yesterday tosell its 80% ownership of the 236 MW Lakewood Cogeneration ventureto Consolidated Edison for $94 million. The sale will result in a$182 million reduction of project debt from the CMS balance sheet.

Natural gas bulls never got a chance yesterday as traders shedlong positions in sympathy with falling cash market prices and inanticipation of warming temperatures this week. By the time thedust had cleared and the orders were tabulated, the March contracthad slipped a cool 18 cents lower, tumbling beneath several keylayers of support and easily negating last Friday’s impressivegains.

MCN Energy Group’s plan to shed exploration and productionoperations drained gallons of red ink from its 1998 bottom line,about $273 million worth. Still the company finished the year witha net loss. MCN reported a net loss of $6.2 million, compared withearnings of $112.2 million in 1997. Including results from theE&P unit – discontinued in anticipation of sale – MCN reporteda net loss for 1998 of $279 million, compared with earnings of$142.3 million in 1997. All figures include special charges.