Struck

Kansas City, MO-based Aquila Inc. struck a deal for the long-awaited sale of its heartland utility businesses to Black Hills Corp. Once that’s done, Aquila and its Missouri-based electric utility will be acquired by Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) parent Great Plains Energy Inc. for about $1.7 billion in cash and stock plus assumption of $1 billion of Aquila debt.

Kansas City, MO-based Aquila Inc. struck two deals last week that, if completed, will bring an end to the 90-year-old company whose fortunes rose and then fell as deregulation swept through the energy patch in the late 1990s. At its peak in 2001, Aquila raked in $36 billion in revenues. But following the collapse of Enron Corp. the company, once known as UtiliCorp United (see NGI, Nov. 12, 2001), was forced to retreat to its utility roots as it sold diversified energy assets to repay debt.

Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. continues its divestiture plan with a deal struck with Statoil for the Norwegian company to pay Anadarko $901 million for its interests in and around two deepwater Gulf of Mexico discoveries and one prospect. The transaction may be structured as a joint venture as opposed to sale.

A tug boat and two barges apparently struck a natural gas pipeline in Louisiana Thursday, killing two people and critically injuring at least two others. Three other people were confirmed missing by state police. The accident occurred near Gulfport Energy Corp.’s West Cote Blanche Bay production facility, located near Baldwin, LA.

Plenty of political wrangling remains before an agreement is struck to commercialize Alaska’s North Slope gas reserves with transport to the Lower 48 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 8). However, getting Alaska gas to Canada and then the United States is something TransCanada Corp. has been thinking about for a long time. And the company has some definite ideas about what it would like its role to be in the effort.

Plenty of political wrangling remains before an agreement is struck to commercialize Alaska’s North Slope gas reserves with transport to the Lower 48 (see NGI, Sept. 11). However, getting Alaska gas to Canada and then the United States is something TransCanada Corp. has been thinking about for a long time. And the company has some definite ideas about what it would like its role to be in the effort.

As a whole, U.S. utilities (energy and water) last year struck more of a balance in their collective credit ratings, but credit rating downgrades dominated again, according to the annual survey for 2005 by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. S&P recorded 46 downgrades in 2005, compared to 36 upgrades; in the fourth quarter the ratio was 19 downgrades to 9 upgrades.

Cumulative gas production shut-ins onshore and offshore Texas and Louisiana are nearly 300 Bcf since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck, Colorado-based consulting firm Bentek Energy reported Thursday. However, gas production from the Gulf Coast finally has risen to nearly 8 Bcf/d compared to about 13.8 Bcf/d prior to the hurricanes.

A group of Southern California municipal utilities led by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) struck a $300 million deal to purchase all of Denver-based Anshutz Oil & Gas Co.’s natural gas reserves in southwestern Wyoming. The assets being purchased include an interconnection to Kern River Gas Transmission.