Units

Laclede Gas Co. has moved to separate its regulated andunregulated entities in an effort to give the unregulated arm ofthe natural gas distributor more flexibility and financing options.The St. Louis company’s board of directors voted for authorizationfrom the Securities and Exchange Commission to reorganize.

ÿTranswestern will perform maintenance today on units atStations 1, 2 and 3, reducing West of Thoreau capacity by about100,000 MMBtu/d.

Weekend prices were up by a few cents from end-of-March numbersin most cases Friday. The biggest upticks of about a dime or morewere concentrated at Northeast citygates and also at NorthernNatural’s demarc and Ventura points, where a bit of market-areachill lingered. Small declines of less than a nickel wereregistered in the Southwest basins and California.

DTE Energy Technologies, an unregulated subsidiary of DTE EnergyCo., reached a distribution agreement with Waukesha, WI- basedGENERAC Power Systems, a manufacturer of prepackaged standby powersystems for homes and small businesses.

Despite continued expansion of revenues in energy trading andservices, PG&E Corp. reported continued depressed earningsresults in those two areas in the third quarter, along with red inkin its Texas operations. Its traditional Pacific Northwestinterstate pipeline, combination utility and merchant power plantbusinesses all continue to be its money-makers, although down orabout the same compared to similar three-month and nine-monthresults last year.

El Paso estimates one of the two compressor units at its Caprock(NM) Station will return to service by April 16, raising San JuanCrossover capacity to 600 MMcf/d from its current 580 MMcf/d. Itappears the other unit will remain unavailable until mid-May, thepipeline said.

Although 1997 saw record financial results for Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG), the company said last week a management reorganization is needed to ensure further growth. CNG is reorganizing its four local gas utilities and its interstate natural gas pipeline and storage operations.

Positive contributions from gathering, processing andinternational activities helped boost El Paso Energy’s secondquarter earnings to $0.45/share, an increase of 22% from $0.37 in2Q97. Earnings before interest and taxes increased to $149 millionfrom $139 million in the year ago quarter.

TransCanada PipeLines created limited partnership TransCanadaGas Processing LP and is offering units to the public. TransCanadaholds various ownership interests in five gathering and processingfacilities and all related agreements in Alberta and Saskatchewan.With offering proceeds, the partnership will acquire an indirect75% interest in the facilities, while TransCanada will retain theremaining 25%. After 20 years, TransCanada will reacquire thefacilities at their fair market value for cash or shares ofTransCanada. “TransCanada will recapitalize these Canadian gasprocessing investments in a very efficient manner and investorswill receive attractive returns and tax treatment,” saidTransCanada CEO George Watson.