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Industry Briefs

The performance of Dynegy’s gas liquids business during thesecond quarter indicates the market is finally making aturn-around. Operating income from the liquids division grew 41% to$54.9 million, Dynegy reported. Its power marketing and generationdivision, including operating margin and equity earnings from jointventure power projects, also showed continued improvement with 28%growth in operating income to $56.8 million. But gas marketingsuffered a 31% decline in operating income to $21.8 millionprimarily because of “weak market conditions” in Europe, thecompany said. Dynegy posted a 19% increase in net income during thesecond quarter to $28 million compared with $23.4 million in 2Q98.It sold a total of 9.2 Bcf/d of gas (6.1 Bcf/d domestically), upfrom 8.2 Bcf/d in 2Q98, and sold 17.4 million MWh of power, down40% from the 28.9 million MWh sold in 2Q98. Dynegy also showed ahigh retail marketing loss of $2.4 million compared with $600,000in 2Q98 because of the expansion of its SouthStar retail marketingalliance with AGL Resources and Piedmont Natural Gas in Georgia.SouthStar markets gas under the name Georgia Natural Gas and hasbuilt one of the largest market shares in Georgia. Dynegyattributed the mounting losses to increased advertising inpreparation for the Oct. 1 deadline for retail customers to switchto buying gas from marketers.

July 28, 1999

Transportation Notes

An outage of the TransCanada Midstream Caribou Gas Plant thatwas scheduled Aug. 3-5 has been canceled, according to a WEI FieldServices posting on the Westcoast bulletin board.

July 28, 1999

Anadarko Energy Services Aligns With Mountain Energy

Anadarko Energy Services Co., the wholesale marketing affiliateof Anadarko Petroleum, is gaining entrance into the retail marketthrough an agreement with independent marketer Mountain Energy.

July 27, 1999

Raymond James Eyes Production Drop

Raymond James & Associates’ gas analysts warned investorsyesterday the latest production statistics indicate gas productionis down 4-6% compared to last year. The St. Petersburg, FL-basedfirm highlighted several indicators, including sharply loweryear-to-year storage injections, reduced E&P company productionfigures, a growing “balancing item” reported by the Department ofEnergy in its gas market statistics and a survey of three of thelargest gas producing states.

July 27, 1999

Financing for Maritimes & Northeast in Place

Duke Energy in conjunction with affiliates of Westcoast EnergyInc., Mobil Corporation and NS Power Holdings Inc. recentlycompleted the project financing for the U.S. and Canadian portionsof the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline project.

July 27, 1999

TransCanada Promises $70 Million in Savings

It’s been a year since the completion of its C$11 billion mergerwith Nova Corp., but TransCanada Pipelines finally came through onpromised savings yesterday. The pipeline company said it will give$70 million in merger-related savings to its pipeline customersthrough “targeted operating cost reductions.” An agreement on thereductions was filed with Canada’s National Energy Board and theAlberta Energy and Utilities Board yesterday.

July 27, 1999

ScottishPower, PacifiCorp Merger Nears Finish

ScottishPower PLC and PacifiCorp announced they have brokered asettlement in principle with the staff of the Oregon Public UtilityCommission (OPUC) that essentially clears the way for the firstacquisition by a foreign company of a U.S. power utility.

July 27, 1999

Distributed Power Faces Utility Opposition

The technology and economics are in line for commercialexpansion of distributed power, but progress is threatened byentrenched utilities, according to distributed power sponsors.

July 27, 1999

Study: Too Late For New Marketers in Georgia?

Marketers considering whether to enter soon-to-be deregulatedelectricity and gas markets should re-evaluate strategies in lightof the experience of gas marketers in Georgia. Late entrystrategies may be very risky, according to an analysis of Georgia’sgas deregulation process by Atlanta-based Energy Market Solutions.

July 27, 1999

Screen Rests, But Cash Market Remains on Fire

The screen may have decided to take a breather Monday afterflexing its muscles so impressively last week, but the heated cashmarket showed no signs of settling down. Western quotes stagedtheir by-now-familiar retaking of ground lost over the weekend, andthis time they actually shared in the general bull market by risingin greater amounts than they had fallen on the previous Friday.Eastern points, on the other hand, continued to build on the upwardtrend they had seen all of last week.

July 27, 1999