Carolyn Davis

With a lot of investments still on the line and no production to show for them, Chevron Corp.’s first quarter earnings and revenue fell sharply from a year ago in the first quarter, even with better natural gas price realizations.

Dominion Resources Inc.’s natural gas storage systems in the Northeast had a record turn of about 241 Bcf in the first quarter, and customers are expressing more interest in expanding storage, executives said last week.

Encana Corp. on Monday agreed to pay a $5 million fine and pleaded no contest to charges that it attempted to commit antitrust violations in connection with a 2010 oil and gas lease sale in Michigan. Chesapeake Energy Corp. indicated that it plans to continue to fight the charges. Both companies were formally charged in March by Michigan officials for allegedly collaborating in 2010 to avoid bidding against each other in a lease sale (see Daily GPI,March 6). The U.S. Department of Justice, which had been conducting a parallel investigation, has dropped its charges against both companies (see Daily GPI,May 1).

The headlines of late may be all about the boom in the onshore, but the offshore industry is doing quite well, thank you, as witnessed by the 90,000-plus engineers, scientists and investors from the world over who have taken up short-term residence in Houston at the 45th Annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC).

The Geismar olefins plant operated by Williams northwest of New Orleans, which has been shuttered for almost a year, is scheduled to restart in June, with expansion plans back on the table, management said Thursday.

ConocoPhillips posted better-than-expected results in the first quarter, aided by its “biggest contributor” today, the Eagle Ford Shale.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. failed to persuade a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court’s decision that the operator must pay $121 million after reneging on a transaction in Texas.

Williams has enough natural gas pipeline projects in the queue to keep it profitable and busy in the long term, both in North America’s onshore and in the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s not willing to gamble on a liquids takeaway solution for Appalachia until shippers step up, CEO Alan Armstrong said Thursday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. and Encana Corp. have been cleared of attempting to manipulate lease sales in Michigan in 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division sent a letter to the producers saying the case was closed. Michigan has not said whether it may continue to investigate bid rigging charges, but a probable cause hearing set for Monday (May 5) remains on the docket, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s office. The producers formally were charged in March by the state for allegedly collaborating in 2010 to avoid bidding against each other in state oil and gas lease sales (see Daily GPI,March 6). Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette claims that executives of Chesapeake and Delaware-based subsidiary Encana Oil and Gas USA privately negotiated for some auctioned leases, which caused prices for the land to plummet.