Hess Corp. has ended a proxy battle with major shareholder Elliott Management Corp. (4.4%) by agreeing to appoint three Elliott-backed nominees to its board of directors. The reconstituted board would comprise 14 members; nine were replaced following the annual meeting Thursday. The activist hedge fund, which had claimed that the company was mismanaged and controlled by Hess family interests, agreed to support five Hess nominees. The board now will be reelected every year instead of every three. Elliott also led the charge to split the chairman and CEO roles, now held by John Hess, the son of the company’s founder, and it has forced the company to sell its downstream arm and monetize Bakken Shale midstream assets.

Golden Pass Products LLC (GPP) has filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate pre-filing for the proposed liquefaction project at the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Sabine Pass, TX. If developed, the project would represent an investment of approximately $10 billion. A final investment decision is to be made following government and regulatory approvals. GPP recently announced the signing of a commercial framework agreement to sell up to the full 15.6 million tonnes per annum output of the project, and provide shipping and sales opportunities to existing and new markets, including leveraging sponsors Qatar Petroleum International and ExxonMobil Corp. long-term arrangements for international imports via the UK’s South Hook facility (see Daily GPI, May 10). GPP has received U.S. Department of Energy authorization for exports to free trade agreement (FTA) countries and is awaiting DOE approval to export to non-FTA nations.

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