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Richmond, VA-based Dominion Energy Inc. is completing its purchaseof gas producer Remington Energy Ltd., of Calgary, AB in a deal valuedat nearly US$300 million that will give Dominion a stake in AlliancePipeline. Still to be completed is its $6.3 billion deal to buyConsolidated Natural Gas (CNG) which was originally announced inFebruary just days before the Remington buyout was revealed (See Daily GPI, Feb. 25, 1999).

Conoco Inc. filed a registration statement with the Securitiesand Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining a split-off plan fromDuPont that will establish Conoco as a fully independent company.The proposed split-off would be achieved through an exchange offerin which DuPont stockholders would be given an opportunity toexchange DuPont common stock for shares of Conoco Class B commonstock currently held by DuPont. The split-off is expected to becompleted in the third quarter. Last autumn, DuPont sold 30% ofConoco last October in the largest initial public offering in U.S.history. The IPO raised $4.4 billion and left DuPont with a 70%controlling interest in Houston-based producer.

Coho Energy was notified by its lenders last week that it wasin default on an $89.6 million over-balance. The company failed tomake the first of five scheduled payments on the balance, whichresulted from an overall $239.6 million debt. The lenders reservedall rights, remedies and privileges as a result of the paymentdefault, but Coho said it expects to continue to discuss afinancing alternative with the bank group.

Burlington Resources (BR) announced that its plan for 80-acrein-fill drilling of the Mesaverde Formation in the San Juan Basinof New Mexico has been approved by the New Mexico Oil ConservationDivision. The 80-acre well spacing order could open up anadditional 7,000 drilling locations in the San Juan and be a majorfactor contributing to production growth in the basin over the nextfew years, according to basin analyst George Lippman, who hasstudied the San Juan for the last 30 years. To date, BR has drilled38 Mesaverde 80-acre in-fill wells and plans to drill 50 additionalwells in 1999.

Nicor Gas has filed a performance-based rate proposal with theIllinois Commerce Commission that would allow the company and itscustomers to save money if Nicor’s commodity, transportation andstorage costs are lower than a fluctuating benchmark. The benchmarkwill be based on a bushel of published gas price indexes, plusaverage transportation costs over the prior year and actual storagecosts. The PBR is expected to be in place starting next January.

Northwest Pipeline’s preliminary investigation indicates thatland movement affecting about 500 feet of pipe was the cause of aline break Friday night near Stevenson, WA (see Daily GPI, March 1,2). Following industry practice, Northwest will send segments ofthe pipe for metallurgical testing to verify the rupture’s causeconclusively. A temporary 16-inch surface pipeline is beinginstalled to restore service to LDC Northwest Natural Gas in theNorth Bonneville, WA, area. Northwest Pipeline said it is workingwith geotechnical experts to plan permanent re-routing of theruptured 26-inch line outside the boundaries of the land movementarea.

Maybe it was the urge to converge that had quotes droppingWednesday for both late-February and March bidweek deals. Theincremental softness remained on the mild side as a few pointsmanaged flat showings and most of the others were down by about anickel or less. Once again the bigger declines of 15 cents or morecame at Northeast citygates as they continued to retreat fromMonday’s cold weather-related price spikes.

FERC earlier this week gave the go-ahead to a compressionupgrade that would add 315,218 Dth/d of firm transportationcapacity to Columbia Gulf Transmission, bringing its system up toits certificated capacity level and then some.

The Midwest snowstorm that gave such a lift to the first dailyprices of 1999 was being repeated to a lesser degree over theweekend and Monday, but this time there were no gains of 20 centsor more as a result. Instead, most of the cash market was flat todown as much as a dime Monday. Still-massive storage inventories,along with forecasts of warming weather in the North and a fallingscreen, were cited as reasons for the softness. Several sources described trading action as subdued.