Trading

CMS Energy Corp.’s energy marketing business, CMS Marketing,Services and Trading (CMS-MST), has jumped on the bandwagon ofoffering municipal customers prepaid gas supply to take advantageof low municipal bond interest rates.

CMS Corp.’s marketing division, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (MST), completed an agreement last Tuesday to purchase a total of 9.3 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the North West Shelf LNG project in Australia for delivery to the CMS Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

CMS Corp.’s marketing division, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (MST), completed an agreement Tuesday to purchase a total of 9.3 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the North West Shelf LNG project in Australia for delivery to the CMS Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The announcement marks the second major deal CMS has struck to take advantage of its purchase of Eastern Panhandle Pipeline and Trunkline Gas Co. from Duke Energy last year.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has put its Gulf Coast midstreamfacilities and its U.S. petroleum and products marketing andtrading businesses on the block, continuing to slim down to itscore transmission holdings.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has put its U.S. Gulf coast midstreamfacilities andpetroleum and products marketing and tradingbusinesses on the block, continuing to slim down assets to its coretransmission holdings.

BGE shareholders approved the formation of holding companyConstellation Energy Group Inc. Constellation Energy is now set tobe launched May 3, trading under the CEG ticker symbol on the NewYork Stock Exchange. Constellation Energy will be the parentcompany that holds BGE’s common stock and the common stock of allof BGE’s current subsidiaries. BGE will become a sibling to itscurrent subsidiaries and will remain regulated by the MarylandPublic Service Commission.

Adding to gains achieved in the Monday evening Access tradingsession, the May contract continued higher yesterday morning asbulls confidently bolstered their long positions. However, recentgains notched by natural gas have not come without a fight andTuesday was no different. After topping out at $2.17, the promptmonth reversed direction in the afternoon, nearly erasing itsadvance by the close. May finished at $2.136, up 0.8 cents on theday.

In a lengthy filing at FERC earlier this week, Amoco Productionand Amoco Energy Trading registered their strong support for thecontroversial auction of capacity in both the short-term andlong-term transportation markets.

Less than a week after buying the gas marketing operations ofSemco Energy, MCN Energy subsidiary CoEnergy Trading announced thepurchase of Michigan-based Howard Energy Marketing’s retail gasmarketing assets for an undisclosed amount. The purchases aredesigned to bolster MCN’s unregulated marketing operations and itsinterest in the proposed Vector and Millennium Pipeline projects,which will add 1 Bcf/d of new gas transportation capacity throughthe region starting in November 2000, the company said.