Various

In a compelling victory for the government, Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and his former right-hand man, Jeffrey Skilling, who had at various times been COO, president and CEO of Enron, were found guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Thursday. Sentencing is set for Sept. 11, and both men could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Duke Energy Income Fund, which was spun off from Duke Energy Corp. to hold various Canadian midstream assets, said it is buying interests in four raw gas processing plants and related gas gathering system in northeastern British Columbia from Duke Energy Corp. subsidiary Westcoast Gas Services Inc. (WGSI) for $145 million. The acquisition will be accomplished through the purchase of all the issued and outstanding shares of WGSI from Westcoast Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp. and the sponsor of the fund. Closing is conditioned on the approval of the fund’s unitholders and is expected to occur by Sept. 30. The fund also announced its intention, contingent on the closing of the acquisition, to increase its monthly cash distributions to $0.07 per unit from $0.067 per unit, or $0.84 per unit on an annualized basis. Doug Haughey, CEO of the fund’s manager, said the facilities “represent an excellent strategic fit for the fund and will serve to strengthen our platform for further growth. In addition, the transaction will be immediately accretive to unitholder distributions.”

Duke Energy Income Fund, which was spun off from Duke Energy Corp. to hold various Canadian midstream assets, said it is buying interests in four raw gas processing plants and related gas gathering system in northeastern British Columbia from Duke Energy Corp. subsidiary Westcoast Gas Services Inc. (WGSI) for $145 million. The acquisition will be accomplished through the purchase of all the issued and outstanding shares of WGSI from Westcoast Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp. and the sponsor of the fund. Closing is conditioned on the approval of the fund’s unitholders and is expected to occur by Sept. 30. The fund also announced its intention, contingent on the closing of the acquisition, to increase its monthly cash distributions to $0.07 per unit from $0.067 per unit, or $0.84 per unit on an annualized basis. Doug Haughey, CEO of the fund’s manager, said the facilities “represent an excellent strategic fit for the fund and will serve to strengthen our platform for further growth. In addition, the transaction will be immediately accretive to unitholder distributions.”

Some mayors from various Texas cities have formed an ad hoc group, “Texas Cities for Climate Protection,” to provide input to the state’s Commission on Environmental Quality, which is individually reviewing 17 separate proposals for new coal-fired generation plants in the state. Arlington’s mayor held a formation meeting for the group earlier in the month at the University of Texas — Arlington, and subsequently Dallas Mayor Laura Miller sent a letter to all the mayors in the state urging their support.

KeySpan Corp. confirmed Friday it is in talks with various parties that could lead to its acquisition, but said it would likely stay mum on any developments until its board either approves a deal or terminates discussions.

El Paso has a full plate of various maintenance projects set for February; see the bulletin board for details. The ones with the biggest service impacts are set for the South Mainline, which will see Low Pressure System capacity reductions as high as 750 MMcf/d Feb. 7-8 and 610 MMcf/d Feb. 3-6 and again on Feb. 9. Also, the pipeline said, the Washington Ranch Storage facility must be withdrawing at a rate of approximately 180 MMcf/d to accommodate equipment testing on Feb. 9. El Paso said it will lose a large degree of operational flexibility during the Washington Ranch test, “making it critical that all parties scheduling gas on our pipeline manage their volumes carefully to balance receipts and deliveries daily.”

The combined impact of 17% below-normal heating degree days (HDD) in the six-week period ending Nov. 18 and various demand destruction effects more than offset the 4.6 Bcf/d of shut-ins caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and U.S. natural gas storage is expected to be above historical levels by April, according to separate analyses by two energy consultants.

Against the backdrop of apparent voter confusion, strong opposition from various state newspaper editorial boards and a thumbs down from all five members of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Proposition 80, California’s retail electricity reregulation ballot initiative, was rejected by California voters last Tuesday. The rejection was part of a broader avalanche of opposition at the ballot box to a number of initiatives up for consideration this year in the state.

Based upon mandatory evacuation orders issued by various governmental entities along the central Texas Gulf Coast, Texas Eastern said it will be required to shut in compression that is necessary to move gas out of the South Texas and East Texas zones. Effective at 6 p.m. Wednesday all IT-1 and a portion of secondary/preferential firm service was restricted for volumes sourced in those zones, the pipeline said. As information is received from supply interruptions, Texas Eastern will force balance TABS pools as required to maintain system reliability.