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Duke Energy North America (DENA) announced the start ofconstruction of three new merchant generation projects totaling1,500 MW. At full capacity, each plant will burn about 3,300MMBtu/hour. In a fourth deal, DENA announced the sale of itsremaining 78.5% interest in the 500 MW Hidalgo Energy Facility toan affiliate of Calpine Corp. for $235 million.

Coastal’s Empire State Pipeline and CNG Transmission Corp.jointly announced the start of service at a new interconnectionnear the town of Lysander, NY yesterday.

Deliveries are scheduled to start in May from Canada’s newestgas production frontier in the Northwest Territories after a groupled by Chevron Canada Resources Ltd. achieved a breakthrough inlining up approvals from a host of federal, territorial, native andenvironmental agencies.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline celebrated the new millenniumwith the rattle and hum of initial gas flowing from the shorelineof Nova Scotia 650 miles to markets in the northeastern UnitedStates. After struggling through an 11th hour Indian dispute inCanada, the pipeline company said it opened its valves Jan. 1.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline celebrated the new millenniumwith the rattle and hum of initial gas flowing from the shorelineof Nova Scotia 650 miles to markets in the northeastern UnitedStates. After struggling through an 11th hour Indian dispute inCanada, the pipeline company said it opened its valves Jan. 1.

BP Amoco announced the start-up of the second of two gasprocessing trains at the Pascagoula (MS) Gas Processing Plant. Theplant now has the capacity to process 1 Bcf/d, 500 MMcf/d in eachof its two trains. BP Amoco operates the plant and holds a 60%interest. Enterprise Products Partners LP of Houston holds theremaining 40%.

Natural gas futures sifted lower Monday following news ofwarming East Coast temperatures and amid a weakening technicalpicture. After a disappointing sub-$3.00 opening, the Novembercontract chopped sideways Monday to settle at $3.016, off 5.6-centsfor the session. Volume was somewhat thin as only 63,328 contractschanged hands.

Duke/Fluor Daniel of Charlotte, NC, was selected by TexasIndependent Energy to provide turnkey engineering, procurement,construction and start-up services for a 1,000 MW, greenfield powerplant in Santa Clara, TX. The project is Texas Independent Energy’s(TIE) first power plant to receive financing. TIE is a jointventure of Panda Energy International Inc. and PSEG Global. “Basedon our reference power plant design, the Guadalupe Power Project isour fifth merchant power plant we are building in Texas,” saidClarence Ray, CEO of Duke/Fluor Daniel. Commercial operation ofPhase I scheduled for December 2000. Construction began thissummer.

CMS Oil & Gas announced last week the start of commercialoperations at the Fort Union Gas Gathering System, one of its mostimportant Powder River Basin assets, and the opening of a newoffice in downtown Denver to manage the company’s activities in thebasin. Gas started flowing through the Fort Union system Sept. 1.