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Sonat Exploration Co. of Houston, a wholly owned subsidiary ofSonat Inc. announced that it will close its Tyler, TX, and OklahomaCity offices on or shortly after Oct. 31. The action is part of aplan to improve the efficiency of the company’s exploration andproduction business. Following the office closures, SonatExploration will conduct all operations out of its main office inHouston.

Columbia Propane named Donald F. Schalk president and CEO ofColumbia Petroleum Corp. He reports to A. Mason Brent, ColumbiaPropane president and CEO. Columbia Petroleum is a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Columbia Propane, an affiliate of Columbia EnergyGroup. Richland, PA-based Columbia Petroleum acquired the assets ofCarlos R. Leffler, Inc. and certain affiliates on May 11 andcurrently serves 36,000 customers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, NewJersey, Maryland, and Virginia. Schalk’s most recent position waspresident, retail services for Agway, Inc. in Syracuse, NY.

NRG Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northern States Power,said it has completed the acquisition of Arthur Kill Station andthe Astoria Gas Turbine Sites totaling 1,456 MW of generatingcapacity from Consolidated Edison Co. of New York The 842-MW ArthurKill Generating Station, located on Staten Island, includes twosteam generating units designed to burn gas and oil, as well as a”black start” gas turbine. The 614-MW Astoria Gas Turbine Sites,located in Queens, consist of 20 gas turbines, grouped into 11units. NRG holds 100% interest in the projects.

Midcoast Energy Resources said its wholly owned Louisianaintrastate pipeline subsidiary, Creole Gas Pipeline, has reached along-term agreement with Chevron Chemical Co. to provide gas supplyto Chevron’s Oak Point plant in Belle Chasse, LA. The five-yearpact calls for Creole to provide Chevron with 9,500 MMBtu/d of gas,or about 90% of the total requirements of the Oak Point plant.Creole will construct a new seven-mile pipeline to provide theservice, which will start in September. Creole provides gastransportation services to major industrial customers in the NewOrleans area.

Columbia Transmission Communications (CTC), a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Columbia Energy Group, unveiled plans to beginbuilding the initial leg of its telecommunications network Monday.The initial leg of the overall route will extend 260 miles from NewYork City to Washington D.C. using Columbia Gas Transmission’sright-of-way. It will be capable of providing voice, data and videosignal access to 16 million people. The company is developing plansto extend this network to 2,500 route miles with direct access to35 million people throughout the eastern United States, includinglines to Cleveland, Cincinnati and New Orleans. CTC said usingColumbia’s right-of-way will allow for a competitive, low-costfiber network. Columbia still needs to get landowner approval forthe lines, a company spokesman said, because the right-of-way wasapproved for pipeline use, not telecommunication wire.

Aurora Natural Gas of Dallas sold its New England retailbusiness to Select Energy of Berlin, CT, for $26 million. Select isa wholly owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities.

Edison International’s wholly-owned independent power subsidiarywill acquire all the fossil-fuel generating assets of CommonwealthEdison. The company will pay about $5 billion for a package of coaland gas-fired plants with total capacity of 9,772 megawatts (MW).Edison Mission Energy has also committed to build 500 MW ofgas-fired generating capacity in Chicago.

Westcoast Energy, a partner in more venturesome natural gasprojects, announced it has sold wholly-owned subsidiary Centra GasManitoba to Manitoba Hydro for $245 million.

Coast Energy Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary ofCornerstone Propane Partners L.P., finalized the purchase of thegas trading assets of ERI (Equitable Resources) Canada Ltd.,effective Dec. 31. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.