Bidding

A looming FERC decision on a proposed tariff revision for Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC’s system could reshape winter natural gas and electric pricing in New England and determine the fate of the Access Northeast expansion project.

Officials at Sempra Energy’s Mexican affiliate Infraestructura Energetica Nova, SAB deCV, or IEnova, said Wednesday they are considering a legal challenge to the Mexican government’s rejection of a natural gas pipeline bid that ultimately was awarded to a unit of TransCanada Corp. (see Daily GPI,April 11).

Officials at Sempra Energy’s Mexican affiliate Infraestructura Energetica Nova, SAB deCV, or IEnova, said Wednesday they are considering a legal challenge to the Mexican government’s rejection of a natural gas pipeline bid that ultimately was awarded to a unit of TransCanada Corp. (see Daily GPI,April 11).

Fresh from enacting historic energy market reforms, Mexico on Wednesday announced preliminary rules for oil and gas companies to bid on 14 offshore exploratory blocks in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), with the first round of bidding scheduled to take place in 2015.

ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. was the big spender in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) quarterly oil and gas lease sale in Salt Lake City Tuesday, bidding $38.8 million for four parcels covering 3,982 acres in the Uinta Basin in Carbon County, UT. The BLM received bonus bids totaling $49.4 million for 8,271 acres in 11 of the 13 offered parcels. The other major bidder was Bill Barrett Corp., which won two parcels covering 1,773 acres, also in Carbon County, with bonus bids totaling nearly $10 million. The producer submitted the highest total bid per acre: $12,100 on parcel No. 20 containing 811 acres.

The Department of Interior considered preventing BP plc from bidding in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil and gas lease sale slated for December but in the end decided against it, Michael Bromwich, head of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said at a House hearing on Thursday.

The Department of Interior considered preventing BP plc from bidding in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil and gas lease sale slated for December but in the end decided against it, Michael Bromwich, head of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said at a House hearing on Thursday.

Ending with an unexpected twist at the end of a bidding war for bankrupt San Antonio-based TXCO Resources Inc.’s oil and gas assets in the Maverick Basin of Southwest Texas, Newfield Exploration Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. — once competitors for the assets — announced a joint transaction last week valued at up to $310 million.

Ending with an unexpected twist at the end of a bidding war for bankrupt San Antonio-based TXCO Resources Inc.’s oil and gas assets in the Maverick Basin of Southwest Texas, Newfield Exploration Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. — once competitors for the assets — announced a joint transaction Tuesday valued at up to $310 million.