Significant

Significant savings are increasingly hard to come by for large,multi-facility energy users even with the help of outside energyexperts, according to panelists last week discussing energymanagement outsourcing at NGI’s GasMart/Power ’99 in Dallas.

The Canadian-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board and the NovaScotia Petroleum Directorate awarded 19 offshore Nova Scotiaexploration licenses and three onshore licenses yesterday for atotal of C$592 million, the largest investment in petroleumexploration ever made in Nova Scotia.

Transco shippers have accumulated a significant negativeimbalance through the first 20 days of April, the pipeline said. Inorder to avoid restrictions that would be caused by a large volumeof receipt makeup transactions requested to flow for a limited timeat the end of the month, Transco urged that such transactions bescheduled as soon as possible to allow a steady flow rate throughApril 30.

In an effort to capture the rewards and pass along savings madepossible by performance-based rates, NIPSCO Industries and its newaffiliate, Bay State Gas, are combining gas supply operations. Thetwo LDCs, which became sister companies when NIPSCO parent NIbought Bay State in February, expect to save as much as $1million/year through combined portfolio management, according toone source.

Kansas, a significant natural gas producing state, is stickingits toes in the water of retail gas competition with a notice ofinquiry (NOI) from the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), “thegoal of which is to explore whether extending restructuring to allretail consumers is in the public interest. We also wish to exploreother regulatory alternatives which may bring benefits to smallerretail gas consumers.”

Viking Gas Transmission’s proposed expansion of its existingsystem in Minnesota would have “no significant impact” onenvironmental conditions provided the pipeline follows certainmitigation measures during construction, according to a FERC staffenvironmental assessment (EA) released last week.

Samson Resources Co., of Tulsa has acquired a significant blockof producing oil and gas properties in Texas, Louisiana,Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. from Duer Wagner& Co. of Fort Worth. The purchase price was in excess of $40million. The properties are located in the same geographical areasas certain of Samson’s existing properties and include multipleopportunities for additional drilling and recompletions.

Shell Oil has become a significant player in the midstream gasbusiness, but this wasn’t always so. While the company heldmidstream gas assets, they were operated as an adjunct to its oilbusiness. That was until deregulation and new market entrantssuggested to Shell it ought to get into the midstream.

The Dallas-based investment firm, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst,announced it was picking up a significant interest in TritonEnergy, the second major investment in an oil and gas E&Pcompany Hicks Muse has made in the last week.