Shreveport

With such locations as Little Rock, AR, and Shreveport, LA, destined to reach the low to mid 100s during the weekend and most other portions of the South hitting the mid 90s or so, cash prices managed to eke out small increases again Friday. That broke a down-up-down-up pattern established in the cash market earlier in the week.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. made a new unconventional natural gas discovery in the Haynesville Shale near Shreveport, LA, which could have a larger impact on the company than any other play to date — including the Barnett and Fayetteville shales, CEO Aubrey McClendon said Tuesday. Chesapeake now controls about 7.5 Tcfe in the Haynesville Shale and with additional leases, it could control “as much as 20 Tcfe over time.”

El Paso Energy Corp. completed its acquisition of Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA. Each holder of Crystal Gas Storagecommon stock received $57 per share in cash in a deal worth $224.6million. “The Crystal assets provide the flexibility, highdeliverability, and multiple pipeline interconnects necessary tomeet the gas supply demands of new plants in the competitive powermarket,” said El Paso CEO William A. Wise.

El Paso Energy Corp. completed its acquisition of Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA. Each holder of Crystal Gas Storagecommon stock received $57 per share in cash. The deal is worth$224.6 million.

The electric unit at Reliant’s Buckley Compressor Station northof Shreveport, LA has shut down because of internal problems. Theoutage may last several weeks, a gas control staffer said; anupdate will be posted soon on the pipeline’s bulletin board.

Houston-based El Paso Energy Corp. plans to acquire Crystal GasStorage Inc. of Shreveport, LA, for $57 cash per Crystal share in adeal worth $224.6 million.

Crystal Gas Storage Inc. of Shreveport, LA, is reviewing itsoptions, including the possible sale of the company. Theindependent gas storage company hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. toassist with the strategic review and said no transactions arepending. The company said there would be no more announcementsunless and until a deal comes about or the effort is scrapped.Crystal Gas Storage owns and operates, through wholly ownedsubsidiaries, two storage facilities near Hattiesburg, MS, andholds various interests in gas properties, primarily in Arkansasand Louisiana.

Petal Gas Storage, a subsidiary of Crystal Oil Co. ofShreveport, LA, is holding an open season for 3.2 Bcf of storagecapacity it plans to add at its high deliverability salt cavernstorage facility near Hattiesburg, MS. The open season began lastweek and continues through Oct. 30.

Crystal Oil Co. of Shreveport, LA, last week closed on itspreviously announced acquisition of Petal Gas Storage Co. Theacquisition of Petal will complement and provide synergies with thesalt dome storage facility already owned by Hattiesburg Gas StorageCo., a subsidiary of Crystal, and which is located less than onemile from the Petal facility. With the acquisition of Petal,Crystal’s subsidiaries will have more than 6.7 Bcf of gas storageworking capacity with the ability to deliver in excess of 670MMcf/d in this major corridor to the northeastern gas markets. JoeAverett, Crystal president, said the acquisition makes Crystal thelargest independent provider of salt cavern gas storage in the U.S.