Joe Fisher

Aging power plants, competitive natural gas prices and increasingly strict environmental regulations will drive continued growth in demand for gas-fired power generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) region, according to a MISO-commissioned study released Friday. The region’s gas supply outlook is poised to benefit from new sources of production, provided appropriate infrastructure development occurs.

Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC has struck a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with PT Pertamina (Persero) under which Pertamina has agreed to purchase about 0.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a liquefaction and export terminal being developed near Corpus Christi, TX. Cheniere Inc. shares hit a new high on Friday following the news.

Freeport LNGnamed Sigmund “Sig” Cornelius successor to Charles Reimer as president and COO effective April 1, 2014. Cornelius is the retired senior vice president of finance and CFO of ConocoPhillips, where he had a 30-year career that included more than 14 years of operational profit and loss responsibilities covering domestic and international exploration and production operations and natural gas processing divisions. Reimer will remain a member of the Freeport board and will stay on as adviser to the company for at least four years after the final investment decision is made in Freeport LNG Expansion’s planned Train 3, which is expected by the end of 2014.

Royal Dutch Shell plc will not proceed with its proposed 140,000 b/d Gulf Coast gas-to-liquids (GTL) project in Louisiana and will suspend work on the project, the company said Thursday.

For the second month in a row, gas-fired power generation gained ground on coal-fired plants compared to the previous year by not falling off nearly as sharply, according to Genscape Inc.’s “Generation Fuel Monitor Report.”

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) delays in approving exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries — and the DOE review process itself — run afoul of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and invite a challenge from a World Trade Organization (WTO) member nation, a former WTO executive said Tuesday.

An open season announced last week by TransCanada Corp. on the eastern leg of its Mainline has prompted two other pipelines to jump on board with complementary eastbound Marcellus Shale-oriented projects of their own.

With Russian conventional oil and gas production in natural decline, producers have turned, in part, to West Siberia and unconventional plays there that are said to be similar in ways to the Bakken Shale and Permian Basin in the United States. Ruspetro plc is among those looking at the Bazhenov Shale.

Independent exploration and production (E&P) company QEP Resources Inc. said Monday it plans to separate its midstream business QEP Field Services Co. as well as its interest in QEP Midstream Partners LP (QEPM), which was formed earlier this year.