Acting

Williams Pacific Connector Gas Operator LLC, acting as the engineering, procurement and construction management contractor on behalf of Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline LP asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization to construct and operate the Pacific Connector Pipeline, a proposed interstate natural gas transmission system designed to deliver up to 1,060,000 Dth/d of natural gas from interconnects with Ruby Pipeline LLC and Gas Transmission Northwest LLC near Malin, OR, to the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal being developed by Jordan Cove Energy Project LP. In late May Jordan Cove, an affiliate of Calgary-based Veresen Inc., filed an application with FERC to construct the liquefied natural gas export facility on the West Coast within the international Port of Coos Bay, OR (see Daily GPI, May 23).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week altered former CEO Aubrey McClendon’s noncompete agreement, giving him the right to acquire oil and natural gas holdings that are adjacent to the company’s wells in which he holds a stake.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. continues to look for a new CEO but it has no timetable on when one might be in place, acting chief Steven C. Dixon said last week. Dixon, who served as a lieutenant to former CEO Aubrey McClendon for 22 years and has been COO, will run the company as the search for a permanent chief continues.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s directors have tapped COO Steven C. Dixon as acting CEO and established a three-person Office of the Chairman as they continue to search for a permanent chief.

Encore Energy Inc., acting in its capacity as lease advisor to mineral rights owners in eastern Ohio’s portion of the Utica Shale, announced Wednesday that it was currently shopping multiple tracts of “add-on” acreage to operators in the play.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) named Gil Bujano as director of the commission’s oil and gas division. Bujano has been serving as the acting director since March and is a 28-year veteran of the commission. He began his employment at the commission in 1984 at the San Antonio RRC district office and also has worked in the Abilene, Pampa and Houston district offices. After serving as assistant director in the Houston district office, Bujano transferred to Austin in June 2009 to supervise the commission’s technical permitting unit. In August 2010, Bujano was promoted to deputy director of the oil and gas division.

When it goes into effect next month, Ohio’s SB 315 will bring regulatory change to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and four other state agencies, but that’s just the beginning of the changes the oil and gas industry can expect from the legislation, according to Craig Kasper, CEO of project development and engineering company Hull & Associates Inc.

The prospects for exporting U.S. natural gas are intertwined with a whole set of variables that are becoming increasingly tough to predict, according to the lead gas and electricity prognosticator at the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Removing a moratorium on new drilling in Pennsylvania state forests is not a priority, the acting secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) told a state Senate committee during confirmation hearings earlier this month.