Well

BP Amoco and Enogex Inc. decided to swap gathering systems inthe Arkoma Basin so the companies might capitalize on theirproducing well interests. BP Amoco received Enogex’s Red Oak gasgathering system in Latimer County in exchange for its Kinta andSouth Bokoshe gas gathering systems in LeFlore and Haskellcounties. No cash was involved in the deal.

BP Amoco and Enogex Inc. announced the exchange of gas gatheringsystems in the Arkoma Basin of Oklahoma in order to capitalize ontheir producing well interests. BP Amoco received Enogex’s Red Oakgas gathering system in Latimer County in exchange for its Kintaand South Bokoshe gas gathering systems in LeFlore and Haskellcounties. No cash was involved in the deal.

Florida Gas Transmission reported completing a maintenance projecton its East White Lake Lateral in southwestern Louisiana well ahead ofschedule and said volumes will be restored to 450,000 MMBtu/d on thelateral’s south end and to 150,000 MMBtu/d on the north end effectivewith the Nov. 24 gas day. The work originally had been expected tolast through Dec. 10 (see Daily GPI, Oct. 19).

Southern Union has completed its merger with PennsylvaniaEnterprises. “The prompt completion of this merger is a vote ofconfidence by our regulators and shareholders, as well as thefinancial community,” said Southern Union President Peter H.Kelley. PEI shareholders will receive 1.59 shares of Southern Unioncommon stock and $3 in cash for each share of PEI common stock.Southern Union also announced a stock repurchase program not toexceed $40 million. It is issuing 17 million shares of common stockand is paying $32 million in cash in connection with thistransaction. In addition, on Oct. 5 Southern Union announced amerger agreement with Fall River Gas, a gas distributor serving48,000 customers in southeastern Massachusetts. The transaction,valued at $75 million.

PG&E called a system-wide OFO with a 7% tolerance for gasday Saturday, Nov. 6, due to high inventory and forecasted highinventory for Sunday and today as well. The OFO called was Stage Iwith a $1.00/Dth noncompliance charge.

FERC last week may very well have given California’s natural gasmarket, which so far has been slow to open up to full competition,a nudge in the right direction when it awarded a preliminarydetermination to a pipeline that plans that give SouthernCalifornia Gas (SoCalGas) a run for its money in the southern halfof the state.

Claiming to be an innocent victim, TXU Energy Trading is seekinga stay of a decision ordering CNG Transmission to turn overpipeline capacity that was initially awarded to TXU toan existingpipeline shipper, who FERC found had properly exercised itsright-of-first-refusal (ROFR) for the capacity.

Conoco Inc. elected Archie W. Dunham chairman of the board,succeeding Edgar S. Woolard, Jr. Dunham will continue to serveConoco as president and CEO, as well as chair. Woolard and Gary M.Pfeiffer, a senior vice president and CFO of DuPont, resigned theConoco board as planned, at the conclusion of the company’ssplit-off from DuPont. Woolard is a former DuPont chairman, and hadbeen chairman of Conoco’s board since July 1998. He remains aDuPont director. Concurrent with his election as Conoco chairman,Dunham steps down from the DuPont board. The moves create twoadditional vacancies on Conoco’s board. The company said it expectsthese vacancies to be filled in the near future.

Ding-dong the downtrend is dead. Well maybe its not dead quiteyet, but it certainly was dealt a potentially fatal blow yesterdaywhen short-covering by funds quickly turned into a buyingfree-for-all as commercials and locals entered the fray. The Augustcontract finished at $2.395, up 14.2 cents for the day. Nearly asimpressive as the price action was estimated volume, whichregistered 113,049 contracts.