HOUSTON -- An investor and his partners have resold Louisiana Intrastate Gas Corp., which they bought three months ago from Tenneco Inc., to Arkla Inc. for an estimated $170 million.
Arkla is the parent company of Houston-based Entex Inc. An Entex spokesman says Arkla will pay $50 million dollars in Arkla stock and assume about $120 million in debt.
The quick turnaround of Louisiana Intrastate Gas means a good profit for Gale L. Galloway, Wasserstein Perella Limited Partners and State Farm Insurance Cos.
Galloway and the others bought the pipeline and related assets in early March for an estimated $120 million. Wasserstein Perella Vice President Doug MacKenzie said his group expected to hold the company up to four years but Arkla made an attactive offer.
The Arkla deal includes about 1,900 miles of pipeline in Louisiana with a capacity of more than 1 billion cubic feet. Also included are the Tuscaloosa Pipeline Co., a small pipeline in western Louisiana; LIG Chemical Co., a spot gas marketing company; and LIG Liquids Corp., which owns four natural gas processing plants with the capacity to process 425 million cubic feet of gas a day.
The pipeline serves more than 75 customers located primarily along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The gas purchasers include agricultural and industrial chemical plants, electric utilities, gas distribution companies, paper mills and other pipelines.
Average natural gas deliveries for 1988 were estimated at around 650 million cubic feet daily for Louisiana Intrastate.
In recent years Arkla, with headquarters in Shreveport, La., and Little Rock, Ark., has acquired not only Entex but Mississippi River Transmission Corp., a St. Louis-based interstate pipeline.
