Western

Tennessee Gas Pipeline is planning a new 400 MMcf/d gas pipelinein the western Gulf of Mexico that will connect Tennessee’sexisting system to the High Island Offshore System (HIOS), pendingregulatory approvals.

This week’s seesaw ride in prices continued Thursday withdouble-digit advances in all markets. Wednesday afternoon’s screenrise, which carried over into Thursday, along with severe heat inthe West, were the chief causes of cash strength, sources said.

Western Resources’ preliminary earnings for April and May werenearly double the entire 1999 second quarter earnings, and assumingthat June is a “normal weather month” with no unexpected events,the company said yesterday it expects to exceed its 1994 record forsix-month earnings that brought $1.46 a share. The earnings fromthe Topeka, KS-based company’s electric utility operations were”significantly ahead” of the company’s expectations, with most ofthe increase attributed to increased earnings in wholesale powermarketing transactions. The preliminary earnings for April and Maytotaled $0.50 per share, compared with $0.27 per share for theentire second quarter of 1999.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline is planning a new 400 MMcf/d gas pipelinein the western Gulf of Mexico that will connect Tennessee’sexisting system to the High Island Offshore System (HIOS), pendingregulatory approvals.

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.

The United States District Court for the Western District ofOklahoma has dismissed the securities litigation filed in late 1997against Chesapeake Energy and its officers and directors and ruledin their favor, the company said yesterday. The litigation, whichoriginally consisted of 12 lawsuits but which was consolidated intoone class action suit in 1998, charged that Chesapeake hadmisstated or omitted facts concerning its activities in theLouisiana Austin Chalk Trend from Jan. 25, 1996 through June 25,1997.

Courage Energy Inc., an oil and natural gas company withoperations in western Canada, announced yesterday a purchase of aninterest in producing wells and facilities in the Peace River Archarea of northern Alberta for $13.5 million. The seller wasundisclosed and Courage will now operate the property with 55%ownership. The acquisition will immediately add over 3 MMcf/d tothe company’s production. There are additional wells awaitingcompletion, and pipeline tie-in, which will add to these productionvolumes, Courage said. The purchase includes 28,000 acres (16,000acres net) of land and a comprehensive seismic database. Anindependent engineering report, prepared for the Vendor, hasassigned 14.1 Bcf of proved reserves and an additional 6.428 Bcf ofrisked probable reserves for a total 20.5 Bcf of establishedreserves. The scheduled date to close the acquisition is Feb. 28,with an effective date of Dec. 31.

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office said it will sueto stop BP Amoco and Arco from merging their companies. The Stateof Oregon also said it will join Washington and the Federal TradeCommission (FTC) in opposing the merger. California also isreviewing its litigation options.

Dynegy Inc., which has teamed up with NRG Energy in westernstate power generation projects, has added a new connection,selling NRG a 50% interest in its Rocky Road Power Plant, a 250 MWnatural gas-fired, simple-cycle peaking facility in East Dundee,IL.