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Exxon Mobil Corp. continues to tout the benefits of the mergerthat created the new company. “When we announced plans for themerger — about a year ago — both companies recognized this wasa once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Chairman Lee Raymond.”Since that time, we have further refined the opportunities andbenefits available to the merged company.” The synergy benefits ofthe merger are expected to be greater and realized sooner thanpreviously thought, Raymond said.

Things are looking up at Mitchell Energy & Development Corp.at a time when the company is up for potential sale. Mitchellreported third quarter net earnings of $29.5 million versus a lossof $3.7 million in the prior-year period. The current quarter’sresults included a $5 million ($3.1 million after-tax) reversal ofprevious litigation provisions. Excluding the reversal, earningsincreased $30 million compared with the prior-year period,primarily due to significantly higher energy prices and loweroperating expenses. These positive factors were partially offset bythe adverse impact of natural gas and natural gas liquidsproduction curtailments in early August associated with a six-dayshutdown of the Bridgeport gas processing plant for maintenance andequipment upgrades.

Things are looking up at Mitchell Energy & Development Corp.at a time when the company is up for potential sale. Mitchellreported third quarter net earnings of $29.5 million versus a lossof $3.7 million in the prior-year period. The current quarter’sresults included a $5 million ($3.1 million after-tax) reversal ofprevious litigation provisions. Excluding the reversal, earningsincreased $30 million compared with the prior-year period,primarily due to significantly higher energy prices and loweroperating expenses. These positive factors were partially offset bythe adverse impact of natural gas and natural gas liquidsproduction curtailments in early August associated with a six-dayshutdown of the Bridgeport gas processing plant for maintenance andequipment upgrades.

David A. Trice was named Joe B. Foster’s successor as CEO ofHouston-based Newfield Exploration Co. effective Feb. 15 whenFoster vacates the position as part of his retirement plans.Foster, a principal founder of Newfield, will continue as chairman.Newfield is an independent oil and gas company active in the Gulfof Mexico, along the U.S. Gulf Coast and off Australia.

When futures took a steep dive after cash trading had beencompleted Thursday, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to predictthat cash prices would be headed into the dumpster Friday. Sureenough, quotes for the weekend were way down. Most of the declineswere between 10 and 25 cents, but some in Appalachia and theNortheast reached the 40-50 cents range. The smaller drops tendedto be concentrated at western points.

Enron Americas LNG Co. has withdrawn its protest alleging that Southern LNG Inc. showed preferential treatment when it awarded the entire capacity of its facility on Elba Island in Georgia, which it is seeking to reactivate, to its marketing affiliate. Since filing the protest in August, the two companies “have negotiated a commercial resolution regarding the future use of the Elba Island Terminal.” Enron LNG said it now supports Southern LNG’s bid for a preliminary determination by Dec. 31 and final approval in the first quarter of 2000 to upgrade and reactivate the mothballed terminalling facility. (See Daily GPI, Aug. 19).

The U.S. portion of TriState Pipeline got some much-needed goodnews last week when FERC issued a preliminary determination on thenon-environmental aspects of the project after resolving a stickyjurisdictional issue. But whether it will be enough to kick-startthe troubled project, which is lagging far behind the competingVector Pipeline, seemed doubtful.

It shouldn’t have shocked anyone when the October aftermarketstarted out weak; after all, a number of sources had beenpredicting such a situation to NGI all week. The softening fromindex levels in swing deals done Thursday for today-only flow wasdivided somewhat on a geographic basis: declines of 15-20 cents ormore in the East were considerably greater than those in the West,which generally were less than a dime. California points evenmanaged about flat showings.

Phillips Petroleum entered a new production area last week whenit announced a 50% acquisition of Yates Petroleum Co.’s coal-bedmethane acreage in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Financial termswere not disclosed. The announcement came just days after rumorscirculated throughout the industry concerning a potential Chevronmerger with Phillips (see related story).