Announcement

Building on its announcement earlier in the month, Petrosearch Corp. said it has organized another five subsidiaries to conduct oil and natural gas exploration activities in various parts of the United States. This brings the total number of exploration subsidiaries to nine.

In conjunction with the early January announcement that it would sell power plants in the U.S. Southeast and exit some overseas businesses as part of a company-wide reorganization plan, Duke Energy said last week that it is combining its North American and international merchant energy operations and eliminating some executive positions.

In conjunction with last week’s announcement that it would sell power plants in the U.S. Southeast and exit some overseas businesses as part of a company-wide reorganization plan, Duke Energy said Monday that it is combining its North American and international merchant energy operations and eliminating some executive positions.

Dallas-based independent Remington Oil and Gas Corp.’s exploratory drilling program is paying off, with the announcement Tuesday of three new Gulf of Mexico (GOM) offshore discoveries — including a substantial natural gas find.

Within hours of a formal announcement last Friday by BHP Billiton about a proposed offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal 21 miles off the Southern California coast, residents and community activists in the nearest onshore population center at Oxnard, CA, were already protesting the proposal. Local environmentalists and elected officials defeated another LNG proposal from Occidental Petroleum Co. last year.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) took issue Thursday with an announcement made by the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) a day earlier concerning a judge’s decision in their legal battle. Nymex had announced that the judge ruled on the merits on the case and dismissed four out of five counterclaims made by ICE against Nymex. But ICE said that’s not entirely true. In fact, the judge left open the possibility that ICE could file amended counterclaims and continue its fight (see Daily GPI, Aug. 14).

Following an announcement that it had unloaded its CMS Viron Energy Services to Chevron Energy Solutions, CMS Energy reported late Wednesday that it had also completed the sale of its CMS Field Services subsidiary to Cantera Natural Gas Inc. On Thursday, the company announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its Australian Loy Yang plant.

Commenting on Unocal Corp.’s recent announcement that it has agreed to acquire the outstanding limited partner interest in Spirit Energy 76 Development LP., Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said the action would have no immediate effect on the El Segundo, CA-based independent’s current ratings or outlook (BBB+/Stable/A-2).

Following the announcement earlier in the day that it had unloaded its CMS Viron Energy Services to Chevron Energy Solutions (see related story), CMS Energy reported Wednesday evening that it has also completed the sale of its CMS Field Services subsidiary to Cantera Natural Gas Inc.