San Jose Firm Is Acquiring Gas Producers

Calpine Corp., a U.S. power-plant developer that’s agreed to buy three Canadian natural-gas producers since November, plans to acquire more gas reserves to fuel its electricity generators in North America.

The company is considering buying gas-producing properties in western Canada and offshore Nova Scotia, said Daniel Allard, Calpine’s vice president of business development. Calpine plans to have enough gas reserves to power about 25% of its generators, Allard said in an interview.

Calpine has been buying gas fields and pipelines to supply its power plants. That helped the San Jose-based company keep costs down last year as gas prices more than doubled.

“We’ll continue to make announcements about gas purchases,” Allard said. “There always seems to be something for sale.” He declined to name companies that have offered gas properties.

Calpine agreed in February to buy Encal Energy Ltd. for about $1.2 billion in stock and assumed debt, more than doubling its gas reserves to about 1.7 trillion cubic feet. In November, it bought TriGas Exploration Inc. for $103 million. In January, it bought closely held Quintana Minerals Canada Corp. for $97.6 million. All are based in Calgary, Alberta.

The purchases let Calpine use its own supplies to fuel production of about 2,300 megawatts of electricity, enough to light 2.3 million U.S. homes. It has about 37,700 megawatts of power capacity running or being built or developed in 28 U.S. states and Canada.

Calpine shares fell $1.32 to $52.71. They’ve more than doubled in the past year. Last week, Calpine said it earned almost twice as much as expected in the first quarter.