Patrick French, 64, an advocate for the U.S. energy industry, died Saturday in Bethesda, MD. French was president of the Foundation for Energy Education and executive vice president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers (TAEP), which he joined in 2000 and helped to transform into a strong statewide network with members in 300 cities and 29 states. French was named an industry “legend” by Oil and Gas Investor Magazine in 2010. He wrote numerous articles and was a frequent energy industry commentator on television, with his efforts culminating in the ABC television pilot series, “The Hard Question,” which recently debuted in Dallas and Houston. French formed The Association Development Group in 1991 in Washington, DC, which worked with trade associations, including the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He also served on the board of directors of the Global Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston and on the board of directors of the National Corrosion Institute at Rice University.

James Cleary, former president of El Paso Corp.‘s Western Pipeline Group, has joined Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) to focus on “identifying and managing investments involving natural gas, crude oil and other liquids pipeline assets,” GIP stated. El Paso is now part of Kinder Morgan Inc. Cleary will be joined by former El Paso pipeline executives Thomas Price and Pat Johnson, as well as Derik Wedel, who had been a senior engineering and construction manager for El Paso. GIP noted that it had worked with the El Paso executives since investing in the Ruby Pipeline in 2009 (see Daily GPI, July 28, 2009). “We are seeing fundamental changes in the global energy supply/demand balance and the requirement for pipeline infrastructure to meet these changes is significant,” said GIP Partner Matthew Harris. “In addition, due to this rapidly changing supply picture, a fundamental understanding of interstate pipeline flows is essential.”

©Copyright 2012Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.