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With even moderate growth, the economic impact of offshore development for Nova Scotia in the next 30 years would be striking, giving the province more gains in gross domestic product (GDP) than any other region of Canada, according to a study by the Greater Halifax Partnership. The study, the first of its kind, examined three potential development scenarios to predict future impacts on the economy, and found that as long as the government offers credible incentives to industry, Nova Scotia’s growth will be dramatic.

Morgan Stanley initiated research coverage of Dynegy Wednesday with an “equal weight” rating and a 12-month stock price target of $15. Dynegy shares, it said, have the potential to ratchet up or down in the short term. “At $9 we see $2 to $3 of downside, with $6 to $7 of upside. If Dynegy survives, as we expect it to, the return to investors should be exceptional, in our view.”

Tulsa-based Vintage Petroleum Inc., highly leveraged with Argentina assets negatively affected by the country’s economic problems, Tuesday said it is turning down a restructuring offer by 8.9% shareholder BP Capital Energy, which has proposed, among other things, that Vintage sell all of its North American assets and be based only in Latin America.

Shell Oil Co., the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, has named Gus Noojin president and CEO of Shell U.S. Gas and Power LLC. Noojin will be responsible for Shell’s natural gas interests in gas transmission, liquefied natural gas and natural gas liquids. He was previously responsible for Shell’s acquisition of the downstream assets of Texaco Inc. in the United States. Noojin replaces Curtis Frasier, who has transferred to Royal Dutch/Shell headquarters in The Hague to become general counsel for Shell International Exploration and Production.

Oneok announced it has sold its remaining equity interest in Magnum Hunter Resources Inc., an independent producer based in Irving, TX. The interest sold by Oneok represented 4.9 million shares of Magnum Hunter common stock. “Our decision to sell is not a reflection on Magnum Hunter,” said Oneok CEO David Kyle. “Strategically it is time for us to divest our interest. The $35.8 million proceeds from this sale will be used to reduce Oneok’s outstanding commercial paper.” Oneok’s energy marketing and trading operations provide service to customers in 28 states. The company is also the largest natural gas distributor in Kansas and Oklahoma, operating as Kansas Gas Service and Oklahoma Natural Gas, serving 1.4 million customers.

Severe weather early Tuesday morning caused an unscheduled outage at Sonat‘s Pavo Compressor Station on the South Georgia facilities. Repairs were completed that afternoon. No incremental IT was scheduled during the intraday 2 cycle for Tuesday downstream of the Albany (GA) Compressor Station; the pipeline was evaluating system conditions to determine whether or not IT would be scheduled during the timely and evening cycles for Wednesday’s gas day.

Muggy heat across the South and moderately higher energy futures helped keep the cash market moving higher Tuesday. Most gains were in the teens, but the PG&E citygate turned in a flat performance despite one of the utility’s nuclear units going down.

After testing, but failing to break below support in each of the prior three trading sessions, natural gas futures rallied quietly Tuesday as technical buying entered the fray. The July contract received the biggest boost, notching a $3.35 high before ebbing slightly to close at $3.328, a 8.6-cent advance for the session. At 96,003 estimated volume at Nymex was heavy.

UBS Warburg lowered its 2002 and 2003 earnings estimates and stock price projections on The Williams Companies on Tuesday based on expectations of much lower energy marketing and trading activity, significant asset sales, higher borrowing costs and an equity issuance in the latter part of the year.