Successful

With its successful merger of Prize Energy boosting proved reserves a year ago, Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. was able to increase total proved reserves 121% last year, the company said. Based on total capital expenditures of approximately $584 million, Magnum Hunter’s unaudited finding and development cost was about 93 cents/Mcfe.

Yes Virginia, there still is an energy executive whom you can admire. Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., a worldwide investment research firm, has named Richard D. Kinder, chairman and CEO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP), as one of four nominees for its CEO of the Year award for 2002. It will announce the winner live on CNBC on Jan. 3 at about 11:20 a.m. (Eastern time).

After going live on Dec. 6 with over-the-counter (OTC) trading of UK natural gas on its system, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said the new offering is off to a strong start with 115 trades at the National Balancing Point (NBP) hub with volume of 205 million therms.

Houston-based KCS Energy Inc. said on Wednesday that its third quarter 2001 drilling program was successful in the Mississippi Salt Basin, South Texas and Mid-Continent regions. However, the company warned that because of currently weak commodity prices it plans to scale back drilling in the fourth quarter.

Following a successful restart of its Internet-only, Access trading session late Friday afternoon, the New York Mercantile Exchange resumed open-outcry trading Monday morning at 11 a.m. (EDT) in an abbreviated, three-hour session. And just as it has been each day since the beginning of the year, sellers had the upper hand in the natural gas pit, as they pressured the October contract to within striking distance of recent lows. The prompt month finished at $2.369, 18.3 cents beneath Friday’s $2.552 close.

Although the screen was successful in a feeble attempt at rallying during regular-session activity, cash prices continued to fall Thursday as traders contemplated the dual market depressants of hefty volumes already socked away into storage less than midway through injection season along with temperatures that, while on the warm side, remain subpar for this time of year.

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see NGI, Oct. 23, 2000).

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2000).

Williams’ Kern River Gas Transmission last week completed anopen season for added firm capacity on its pipeline into Nevadaand/or California amid rave reviews, although specific details werenot yet released by the Salt Lake City-based interstate pipeline.