Through

El Paso Energy’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. is holding an openseason for its Eastern Express: New England Expansion through 2p.m. CST Oct. 15. The open season, which began yesterday, follows upon an Eastern Express Project 2000 March expansion filing at the FERCfor an additional 168 MMcf/d of capacity from additional compressionat Dracut, MA (see Daily GPI, March 18,1999).

Citing high linepack and storage limitations, Northwest said itis not allowing any on-system balancing or banking through the restof September. Both the Clay Basin and Jackson Prairie storagefacilities are nearly full even though the injection seasondeadline for 100% fills is Sept. 30, Northwest said. In addition,mainline capacity is “very limited” in accepting payback volumesdirectly to linepack, the pipeline added.

BP Amoco will be marketing 45 MMcf/d of gas production from theSable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) through an agreement with NovaScotia Resources (Ventures) Ltd. [NSR(V)L].

FirstEnergy Corp. added 30,000 industrial, commercial andresidential customers in the Midwest through an acquisition of theretail natural gas business of Volunteer Energy LLC, a subsidiaryof Williams. The acquisition was filed with the Federal TradeCommission and the Department of Justice and the parties expect toclose later this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

FirstEnergy Corp. added 30,000 industrial, commercial andresidential customers in the Midwest through an acquisition of theretail natural gas business of Volunteer Energy LLC, a subsidiaryof Williams. The acquisition was filed with the Federal TradeCommission and the Department of Justice and the parties expect toclose later this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MCN Energy followed through as planned on the previously announcedsales of its Midcontinent/Gulf Coast exploration and production(E&P) properties and subsidiaries. Undisclosed privately heldcompanies paid about $105 million for the assets, which are primarilylocated in Texas and Oklahoma. Proceeds from the sales will helpstrengthen MCN’s balance sheet by reducing its debt. At year-end 1998,these Midcontinent/Gulf Coast assets represented 144 Bcfe of reserves,or 12% of the 1.2 Tcfe of proved reserves on MCN’s books. About 80% ofthe reserves sold were gas. MCN announced earlier in August that,consistent with its new regional, operating strategy, the company willretain its natural gas producing properties in Michigan (see Daily GPIAug. 3). Negotiations continue on theremaining Appalachian E&P package.

Vector Energy Corp., created just over a year ago through oiland gas asset acquisitions, is leaving drill bits behind in favorof dot-coms and ISPs. “Nobody cares about oil and gas,” said VectorFounder and President Sam Skipper. Over the next several yearsVector will be either divesting its oil and gas properties ormerging them into another company, he said. Meanwhile it’s headingfor Internet territory, with a letter of intent to acquire onepublicly-held Internet Service Provider (ISP) and promises of anagreement with another with 8,000 subscribers.

Fueled by follow-through buying on the heels of Monday advances,the futures market ambled higher yesterday as traders weighed theimpact of bullish news expected to be released this afternoon. TheSeptember contract finished up to 2.3 cents at $2.598. Impressiveadvances were also seen in the out months with the October,November and December contracts notching similar gains.

Florida Gas Transmission extended an Overage Alert Day notice forthe area east of Station 12 (see Daily GPI, July 30) through at least Friday’s gasday. The tolerance for daily negative imbalances remained at 3%.