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After a brief foray in negative territory, natural gas futuresbubbled higher yesterday, preserving bulls’ 6-day and countingstring of price advances. With yesterday’s 4.2-cent rise, the Junecontract has climbed almost 40 cents from $3.01 lows notched on May5. June closed at $3.396.

Southern Union Co. has gotten a thumbs up from the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission (PPUC) for its pending mergers with threeNortheast utility companies — Fall River Gas Co., ProvidenceEnergy Corp. and Valley Resources Inc. The approval, which comesthree months after Southern Union’s application was first filed, isone of several required before the merger is approved. Still tocome are approvals from utility commissions in Rhode Island,Massachusetts and Missouri, state legislatures and variousregulators in the affected states.

To complement Southern Energy’s new power generation plantscheduled for construction in Zeeland, MI, Semco Energy Inc.announced plans yesterday to build a natural gas line to serve thefacility. Southern Energy plans to build a 830-MW plant to supplythe growing demand for electricity in the upper Midwest (see NGIMay 12). Semco’s gas line will connect the plant with ANRPipeline’s interstate mainline system.

Independence Pipeline and ANR Pipeline are offering a newnegotiated basis rate option for shippers who sign on for 10 yearsstarting Nov. 1, 2002 for firm transportation from Chicago to theLeidy Hub in Pennsylvania.

Privately-held Hunt Oil, based in Dallas, announced yesterday itis buying Calgary-based Newport Petroleum Corp. for C$5.50/share incash or about C$760 million, excluding C$271 in debt assumption.The offer represents a 10% premium over Newport’s closing shareprice of C$5 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 12. It hasunanimous support of Newport’s board and senior officers.

Shippers on Texas Gas Transmission Corp. have called on FERC toproceed cautiously with the pipeline’s proposed Section 4 generalrate filing that seeks to increase its total cost of service by19%, or $48 million, and boost annual rates for jurisdictionalpipeline and storage services by about $81 million.

Cabot Oil & Gas announced it will close its Pittsburghoffice Aug. 31 as part of a “strategic repositioning” that includedthe sale of non-core Appalachian properties to Enervest ManagementCo. for $46.2 million last September. About 15 jobs will beeliminated as a result of the action. The remaining positions willbe transferred to existing offices in Charleston, WV, and Houston.

Allegheny Energy Solutions formed a strategic alliance withdistributed generation developer Capstone Turbine. “As the world’sleading microturbine manufacturer, Capstone enhances our range ofon-site solutions and provides us with a quality product to offerto our customers,” said David Cole, director of Allegheny EnergySolutions. “We believe there will be significant growth ofdistributed generation opportunities over the next five to 10years, and Allegheny Energy is seizing opportunities in thisgrowing market.” As part of the alliance, a Capstone MicroTurbinewas installed at the site of Allegheny Energy’s Mitchell PowerStation in New Eagle, PA. Allegheny will monitoring the technicaland economical characteristics of the device and identify newapplications. Allegheny Energy, Inc. is a diversified energycompany headquartered in Hagerstown, MD. Allegheny Power deliverselectric energy to about three million people in parts of Maryland,Ohio, Pennsylvania Virginia, and West Virginia.

Florida Gas Transmission lifted Sunday a market-area Overage AlertDay notice that had been issued last Tuesday (see Daily GPI, May 10), but cautioned shippers it wouldcontinue to monitor hourly and daily takes.