EQUITY

Westport Resources Corp. (to be "WRC" on the NYSE), Denver, has registered a $100-million initial public offering of common stock with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Denver independent was formed by the April merger of Westport Oil & Gas Co. and Equitable Production (Gulf) Co., an indirect subsidiary of Equitable Resources Inc. (NYSE: ERI) that held assets in the Gulf of Mexico. Credit Suisse First Boston is lead underwriter, with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp.; Lehman Brothers Corp.; Banc of America Securities LLC; and Petrie Parkman & Co. as managing underwriters. Westport's chairman, Donald D. Wolf, founded General Atlantic Energy Co., another Denver independent, in 1981 and was its chairman until it merged with United Meridian Corp. in 1994. UMC subsequently combined with Flores & Rucks Inc. to form Ocean Energy Inc. (NYSE: OEI). Since its formation in 1996, Westport Oil & Gas has grown through several acquisitions, most notably its purchase of Total Minatome from Total SA (NYSE: TOT) in 1998. The company's officers include several former Amoco Production Co. executives. Westport Resources operates in the Gulf of Mexico, Rocky Mountains, West Texas and the Midcontinent, and the Gulf Coast. Its strategy will be to maintain a balanced portfolio of lower-risk, long-life onshore reserves and higher-margin offshore reserves to provide a diverse cash flow foundation. Proved reserves as of Dec. 31, 1999, totaled 454.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, 51% of which is gas and 81% of which is proved and developed. The company's reserve life index is 7.5 years. Westport operates 77% of its production, which totaled 60.8 Bcf equivalent in 1999 and averaged 162.7 million cubic feet equivalent per day during first-quarter 2000. The company's existing principal shareholders, Westport Energy LLC and ERI Investments Inc., an Equitable Resources affiliate, will retain controlling interest of Westport Resources following the IPO. Westport will use net proceeds to reduce its bank debt, which totaled $325 million as of March 31 with a syndicate that included Bank of America, Chase Bank of Texas, U.S. Bank, Bank One and Credit Lyonnais. The company then plans to combine its rebuilt bank credit capacity with cash flow from operations to pursue additional acquisition opportunities. Key Energy Services Inc. (NYSE: KEG), East Brunswick, N.J., sold 11 million shares of its common stock, including 1 million additional shares pursuant to the underwriters' exercise of their overallotment option. The offering, managed by Lehman Brothers Inc. and Dain Rauscher Wessels, was priced at $9.625 per share. The oilfield-service company received approximately $101.5 million of net proceeds. Key intends to use substantially all of the amount to pay long-term debt and associated fees and expenses. Collicutt Hanover Services Ltd. (Toronto: COH), Red Deer, Alberta, closed an initial public offering of 3.3 million common shares to Canadian investors for C$23.1 million, or C$7 per share. First Energy Capital Corp. led the offering syndicate, which included Goepel McDermid Inc., Newcrest Capital Inc. and Peters & Co. Ltd. The natural gas compression service company will use net proceeds to construct a new facility to design and fabricate gas compression equipment. The company is Canada's second-largest compression parts and services company, with service branches in Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, Grande Prairie, Fort St. John and Medicine Hat. Lone Star Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LSS), Dallas, will sell 3 million common shares and 750,000 common shares will be sold by one of its stockholders. The Dallas oilfield tubular goods manufacturer will use its portion of proceeds to substantially reduce its debt, including obligations related to recent acquisitions, and to acquire other businesses, to fund development of new products, to enhance productivity and for general corporate purposes. Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. is lead underwriter; Banc of America Securities LLC, Dain Rauscher Wessels and The Robinson-Humphrey Co. are managing underwriters. Lone Star and the selling shareholder have granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to 562,500 additional shares to cover any overallotments. PetroQuest Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: PQUE), Lafayette, La., privately placed 4.89 million common shares at $2.50 each for $12.225 million of gross proceeds. The independent will use net proceeds to build and install production facilities and for development drilling and completion activities. It has agreed to register with the SEC for the resale of the common stock issued in the private placement within 30 days after the transaction close. Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN), Philadelphia, filed a universal shelf registration statement with the SEC to issue up to $1.5 billion in securities, including senior and subordinated debt, common and preferred stock, warrants and trust preferred securities. Once the shelf becomes effective, the independent refiner-marketer said that the securities may be offered from time to time directly by the company and its affiliated trusts or through underwriters at amounts, prices, interest rates and other terms to be determined at the time of offering. Cal Dive International Inc. (Nasdaq: CDIS), Houston, registered with the SEC to sell up to 4.3 million common shares. The shelf registration covers offerings by the offshore oilfield service company and its largest shareholder, Coflexip (Nasdaq: CXIPY), which has demand registration rights for the Cal Dive shares that it owns. Stratic Energy Corp. (Canadian Venture: SECO), Calgary, privately placed 3.5 million special warrants at C50 cents each for C$1.75 million of gross proceeds. Gentry Resources Ltd. (Toronto: GNY), the independent's largest shareholder, participated in the private placement. Stratic also issued compensation warrants to First Associates Investments Inc., which acted as agent for the financing, to acquire options for up to 350,000 Stratic common shares for C50 cents each for two years after closing. The producer will file a prospectus in Alberta and Ontario to qualify the common shares that it would issue as the warrants are exercised and the options issued pursuant to exercise of the compensation warrants within 150 days after closing. Aventura Energy Inc. (Canadian Venture: AVR), Calgary, will proceed with a nonbrokered private placement of up to 8 million shares at C25 cents each for C$2 million of gross proceeds. The independent will use proceeds for regular operations on the its oil and gas properties. Aventura also plans to grant one of its directors the option to acquire 250,000 common shares at the same exercise price. Ascot Energy Resources Ltd. (Canadian Venture: AER), Calgary, raised C$1.8 million from the exercise of 6 million common share purchase warrants that it privately placed with Canadian investors. Each purchase warrant entitled the holder to acquire, on or before June 30, one flow-through common share of the independent for C30 cents per share. Ascot will use the proceeds for ongoing capital expenditures.