That

Key Energy Group Inc. announced Tuesday that it has signed adefinitive merger agreement to acquire Dawson Production Servicesfor an estimated $352 million. The terms of the agreement call forKey Energy to purchase 11.5 million outstanding shares of Dawsoncommon stock for a total of $202 million, and to assume Dawson’sexisting debt of $150 million.

The American Gas Association released a study yesterday thatforecasts gas consumption growth of 40% by 2015, fueled by strongindustrial demand growth, the dominance of gas-fired generation innew power plant construction and the popularity of gas in new homeand commercial construction. AGA projects gas will expand its shareof the U.S. energy market to 28% in 2015. Consumption is expectedto rise to 31.9 quadrillion Btus (roughly 31 Tcf) from about 22.9quads in 1997.

PanCanadian Petroleum subsidiary PanCanadian Gulf of MexicoInc., made a deep-water oil and gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexicothat it likened to Shell’s prolific Auger Field. The Llanodiscovery well, in Garden Banks Block 386 about 137 miles offshoreLouisiana, drilled to a record depth for the Gulf of 27,864 feet.The sands at Llano correlate closely to similar sands encounteredby Shell Deepwater Development in the Auger Field, less than 15miles to the southwest, containing a reported 220 million barrelsof oil equivalent reserves. Auger has reported reserves of 220million Boe with approximate production of 100,000 barrels of oiland 300 MMcf of gas per day.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) beganconstruction of its 292-mile pipeline system. “We remain confidentthat PNGTS will be fully operational this fall, bringing thebenefits of this important new energy project to customersthroughout New England,” said Michael A. Minkos, president of PNGTSOperating Co.

Amoco Corp. and Spain’s Repsol SA have made a proposal thatwould provide a guaranteed market for gas from Trinidad and Tobago,enabling the country to become one of the world’s top suppliers ofliquefied natural gas (LNG).

Northwest continued Tuesday to ban any on-system balancing,warning that regional temperatures are getting warmer and linepack”is very high.” Shippers were asked to refrain from banking gas onthe system in order to avoid a potential entitlement.

NGC Corp. and Texaco signed a memorandum of understandingyesterday to create a new joint venture company that will useexisting gas liquids pipelines to create a 290-mile, bi-directionalnatural gas liquids (NGL) transportation system, extending fromSorrento, LA, to Mont Belvieu, TX.

New Energy Ventures won a huge four-year power supply contractwith the Department of Defense that covers 1,200,000 MWh ofelectricity annually is worth $300 million. Among the servicesincluded in the contract are energy procurement and access to dailyincremental electric usage and demand data for each site via NewEnergy Ventures’ customer service Web site,http://www.nevservice.com.

Consolidation in the drilling/oilfield services industrycontinued this week, with the announcement that Baker Hughes andWestern Atlas plan to merge in a tax-free, stock-for-stocktransaction valued at $5.5 billion. It will create a company with$6.5 billion in annual revenues and 36,000 employees.