GasAtacama, the $750 million pipeline and power plant project, is the most recent achievement. The pipeline carries, for the first time, natural gas from northern Argentina's production fields, 585 miles across the Andes Mountains to the Pacific coast of northern Chile. There, the gas fuels a CMS generating plant that will substantially lower the cost of electricity to the region. The pipeline was built in just 14 months.

The power plant's first unit will produce 355 megawatts; ultimately, the plant will be expanded to 740 megawatts. Customers include electric distribution utilities in the north and Minera Escondida, which is expanding operations to become the world's largest copper mine.

Between 50 and 60 percent of the pipeline's capacity is already under contract. In addition to the power plant, gas customers include Chilean distribution company Chilquinta S.A., which is planning to build a natural gas distribution system in the region.

CMS Energy also is part owner of the 3,100-mile Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN), one of Argentina's primary high-pressure pipeline systems. TGN expanded capacity by 17 percent in 1998 to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day. This spring, TGN will build a 270-mile pipeline connecting Argentina with Brazilian markets. It will be the first direct connection between pipeline systems in the two countries.

TGN also supplies gas to CMS Energy's Mendoza generating plant. In 1998, CMS completed refurbishing the plant and doubling its capacity to 540 megawatts. Four turbines were converted to natural gas and a high-efficiency combined-cycle gas turbine was installed.

CMS Energy's other Argentine generating plants are operating well. Plentiful water helped the El Chocon and Arroyito hydro plants operate at almost full capacity for the first half of 1998. CMS Ensenada completed its first full year of operation, supplying steam and electricity to YPF's largest Argentine refinery.

EDEERSA, CMS Energy's electric distribution company about 300 miles northeast of Buenos Aires, improved its operating performance. Although a cold summer and warm winter slowed energy sales, operating efficiencies reduced the impact of weather. EDEERSA saved $1 million by reducing purchased power costs.

CMS Energy also completed its first full year of ownership interest in Brazilian electric distribution companies Cataguazes and Energipe. Their operating and maintenance cost per customer outperformed the average Brazilian utility's cost by 38 percent.

Cataguazes was named "Utility of the Year" by Modern Electricity, in recognition of commercial and technical performance and low energy losses. Energipe president Marcelo Silveira da Rocha was named the state of Sergipe's "Outstanding Executive of the Year" by a leading Brazilian business magazine.

CMS Energy also purchased the Venezuelan electric distribution company, SENECA. It serves over 90,000 customers on Margarita Island, which has a tourism-based economy. The utility acquisition included a 150 megawatt power plant.

Venezuela holds promise for the company's oil and gas exploration and production activities. Three newly completed wells in the Colon Block in western Venezuela helped push gross production in the block to more than 12,000 barrels of oil per day.

Performance in the Oriente Block in Ecuador was also outstanding. Production increased to 50,000 barrels of oil per day, limited by a lack of pipeline capacity, while production costs were held to $2.36 per barrel.