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El Paso has selected Société Générale to arrange a non-recourse loan to refinance the $700-800 million construction costs of Macae, a 400 MW gas-fired power plant in Rio de Janeiro. A New York project financier familiar with the matter says the deal is progressing smoothly and he expects it to close within the next few months. He declined to comment on the size and terms of the loan. Officials at El Paso in Houston and bankers at SocGen did not return calls.

Barclays Capital, Credit Agricole Indosuez and Deutsche Bank last week launched an EUR250 million three-year facility loan on behalf EDF Trading. Bankers say the loan will be used to support the London-based trading shop's credit lines and marks the joint venture's first foray in the bank debt market. Neither EDF nor the lead arrangers returned calls.

A $217 million, 16-year project loan earmarked for the construction of Rio Bravo III, a 500 MW gas-fired plant in northern Mexico, being developed by Electricité de France, is facing delays. A project financier familiar with the matter says that Société Générale has been struggling to pull the deal together and will likely not close it until Q4. He adds that SocGen intended to launch syndication at the end of June, but now will probably delay launch until late August. The financier declined to comment on the reasons for the delay except to say there are some "due diligence issues" that need to be sorted out. Calls to bankers at SocGen and officials at EdF in Paris were not returned.

The Inter-American Development Bank and Bank of America closed syndication a couple of weeks ago on a $173 million loan being used to develop Thermo Bahia, a 187 MW gas-fired power project in Brazil's Bahia state, says one syndicator. The firms signed up six lenders with $15-20 million commitments: ANZ Bank, Intesa BCI, HypoVereinsbank, Société Générale, Credit Agricole Indosuez and ABB Structured Finance. He declined to comment on the fees. Bankers at the IDB and BofA declined to comment on the matter and calls to the lenders were not returned.

Some trading counterparties are meeting face-to-face to hammer out the precise meaning of contracts and ensure that both sides of a trade understand what is and isn't allowed.

Energy trading shops that are part of a larger group with a significant weighting towards safe, regulated utility earnings are likely to emerge as the leading players in the energy trading market going forward. Peter Blood, director marketing & transmission at Calpine, said the players who have weathered the equity market heat over recent months have the common thread of a "safe piece" of regulated earnings. He cited American Electric Power, FPL Group and Progress Energy as examples. He added Calpine has been aiming for this type of earnings safety through its large California supply contracts.

Atlanta, Ga.-based Southern Co. is on the lookout to acquire generation assets in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland (PJM) power pool and the Midwest region, according to Gale Klappa, chief financial officer. He says that Southern plans to take advantage of the low valuation of assets in the marketplace.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's largest aluminum smelters, last month hired U.S. consultantTaylor DeJongh to advise on raising roughly $1.5 billion in debt financing. Part of the proceeds will be used to build a 625 MW inside-the-fence combined-cycle gas-fired power plant. Alba is adding the generation facility because it is looking to increase smelting capacity by some 33% to 750,000 tons of aluminum per annum.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings' $875 million loan funding the Kern River natural gas pipeline expansion closed June 21 with a strong line up of 27 banks signing on at the co-arranger level and an early retail ticket from MetLife. The deal was led by Credit Suisse First Boston, Union Bank of California and Commerzbank. Market officials say the deal--which was expected to be meet strong demand from the outset

San Jose, Calif.-based Calpine is backing away from the search for a partner to bolster its trading operation partly because of regulatory difficulties associated with a tie-up. Peter Blood, director of marketing and transmission, told attendees at a trading conference in Houston last week, "We were in the throws of discussing an alliance [but] we've put that on the back burner." He continued, "We think we will go it alone now."