Shell unit enters prepaid utility gas market

Jan. 3, 2008
Public Energy Authority of Kentucky Inc. and Societe Generale Energie (USA) Corp. signed a 20-year, $456 million prepaid natural gas contract.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 3 -- Public Energy Authority of Kentucky Inc. and Societe Generale Energie (USA) Corp. signed a 20-year, $456 million prepaid natural gas contract.

Coral Energy Resources LP, a unit of Shell Energy North America (US) LP, will supply SGE with 88.6 bcf of gas required for the transaction, which marks the Shell subsidiary's entry into the municipal natural gas prepayment market.

SGE will deliver the gas to PEAK, a municipal joint action agency organized by the cities of Carrollton and Henderson in northern Kentucky. PEAK will use the supply to serve base load gas requirements of its municipal members and participants in Kentucky, South Carolina, New Mexico, and Alabama.

PEAK, which financed the prepayment with the proceeds of revenue bonds, concluded two earlier prepayment deals in 1998 and 2006. The deals secure long-term, reliable gas supplies in volatile energy markets.