GATX Terminals Corp., Chicago, Ill., announced it completed the sale of its 25% share in Olympic Pipe Line Co. to BP's pipelines business unit. Terms were not disclosed. In June of 1999, an Olympic Pipe Line-owned products line ruptured in Bellingham, Wash., killing three people. The US Department of Transportation's Research and Special Programs Administration proposed a record $3.05 million civil penalty against Olympic June 2 (OGJ Online, Aug. 4, 2000).
Koch Industries Inc. announced formation of Koch Global Bandwidth Services Inc., a telecommunications bandwidth trading and optimization entity. Koch Bandwidth Services will be headquartered in Houston.
Caminus Corp., New York, said it and HoustonStreet Exchange have spearheaded the formation of the Energy Trading Standards Group, an open consortium with the goal of developing standards to automate the sale of wholesale energy and improve information sharing between energy trading companies. ETSG will develop open standards to communicate energy trade data based upon XML (extensible markup language) technology for business-to-business Internet commerce, said Caminus. Other members include ABB Group unit ABB Energy Information Systems, Automated Power Exchange Inc., OpenLink Energy, RedMeteor.com Inc., Triple Point Technology Inc., GFInet Inc., and Sapient Inc.
Evro-TEK, an affiliate of Russia's Tyumen Oil, won the tender for the 85% stake in Onako with a bid of $1.08 billion. The government is selling its stake in key oil companies as part of its ongoing privatization efforts. Sibneft said in response to the Onako sale that it hopes to build a successful partnership with the new owners. Sibneft is the main minority shareholder in Onako production subsidiary Orenburgneft, with a stake of almost 40%. Sibneft acquired the shares from Yukos and a number of other Orenburgneft shareholders earlier this year. Sibneft also holds a stake of around 1% in Onako. A spokesman said Sibneft would also take part in future tenders for Rosneft and Slavneft.
Cabot Corp., Boston, Mass., said it completed the sale of subsidiary Cabot LNG LLC to Tractebel Inc., the US subsidiary of Tractebel Group, for $680 million in cash. The purchase includes among other holdings interests in a liquefied natural gas terminal in Massachusetts, a 10% holding in a LNG plant in Trinidad and Tobago, and a "multibillion-dollar" gas sales and purchase agreement with Sithe Energy Inc. The transaction was announced earlier this year (OGJ Online, July 13, 2000).
Toreador Resources Corp., Dallas, Tex., completed acquisition of Texona Petroleum Corp., Houston, by means of a share-for-share forward triangular merger. Most of Texona's properties are located in 12 US states, primarily Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Toreador acquired 100% of the outstanding stock of Texona in exchange for 1,115,000 shares of Toreador's common stock. As a result, Texona shareholders will own approximately 17% of Toreador's issued stock when calculated on a fully diluted basis. These new reserves will add approximately 5,529 MMcf and 431,000 bbl of oil to Toreador's reserves.
Tracer Petroleum Corp., Calgary, said it would issue 1.5 million restricted shares to certain members of the Mullins Group Association according to terms of a December 1998 agreement, since it had completed the acquisition of 4.5% interest in the South Alibek petroleum project in western Kazakhstan, s. Under the terms of the agreement, the Mullins Group would be compensated for potential acquisitions in Iran or elsewhere that it introduced to Tracer if the acquisition was completed. The agreement was approved by the shareholders at Tracer's annual meeting of shareholders on June 4, 1999. Tracer on April 3 entered into an agreement to acquire up to a 45% working interest in the South Alibek Field in the Aktyubinsk region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Based upon the estimated net present value, discounted at 15%, of South Alibek's proved and probable recoverable reserves, the number of shares that Tracer is required to issue is 1.5 million.
