Sempra Energy Solutions, the retail marketing arm of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, announced that it dedicated the first phase of a new combined heat/power generating plant at the sprawling $900 million Food and Drug Administration headquarters complex in Silver Spring, MD. Sempra Solutions has a 20-year contract with the FDA under the federal energy department’s performance-based contracting program. Called White Oak, the consolidated FDA headquarters will include three million square feet of space on 130 acres and will be developed over 10 years. The energy plant is being developed in phases as a natural-fired cogeneration facility. The specific terms or value of the energy supply contract were not disclosed, but Sempra finances the centralized energy plant equipment and installation with no up-front cost to the federal agency, getting paid annually through the energy savings, which are estimated by the GSA to be about $2.5 million annually for the 6,200-employee complex in which all of the 14 buildings are interconnected.

Chesapeake Energy signed a three-year joint development agreement with a new company formed by the management of Greystone Petroleum LLC, which was purchased by Chesapeake in May 2004 for $425 million. The new agreement gives Chesapeake the exclusive right to acquire a 50% interest in any of the new company’s (Greystone Oil & Gas LLP) future oil and gas projects. “Through the course of discussing and completing the Sligo [Field] acquisition earlier this year, we realized that Joe [M. Bridges] and Mike [A. Geffert] were highly talented oil and gas finders in the Ark-La-Tex region, an area that Chesapeake has targeted for further expansion,” said Chesapeake CEO Aubrey K. McClendon. “We therefore decided to pitch them on the idea of forming a new Greystone with Chesapeake as their partner, rather than have private equity backing again.” Greystone’s management will devote all of its efforts to the evaluation and development of oil and gas projects in Mississippi and in North Louisiana, East Texas and southeast Arkansas (Ark-La-Tex). Chesapeake will provide financial support for Greystone’s new project efforts and staffing needs in exchange for the right to acquire a 50% interest in Greystone’s projects. Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System

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