Decade

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

In what was called the “best” western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) sale in nearly a decade for both the number of bids submitted and the amount of money bid, the Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 200 on Wednesday garnered $340.9 million from 62 companies despite attempts to block the sale by the state of Louisiana and a continuing legal threat to the leases.

Ending a half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation, El Paso Corp. announced Wednesday that it will pay about $48 million and its insurers will cover the remaining $242 million to settle multiple shareholder class action lawsuits and several other derivative lawsuits filed against the company between 2000 and 2004.

Ending a half-decade of turmoil, El Paso Corp. announced Wednesday that it will pay about $48 million and its insurers will cover the remaining $242 million to settle multiple shareholder class action lawsuits and several other derivative lawsuits filed against the company between 2000 and 2004. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of shareholders because of the massive collapse of El Paso stock prices following allegations of wash trading, charges of California gas market manipulation and financial revisions that cut the company’s reserves by more than 41%.

The fact that major Wall Street investment companies are forecasting a drastic drop-off in oil and natural gas prices in the second half of the decade, a drop-off that is not reflected in NYMEX futures, could create a stock market buying opportunity, Houston analyst John Olson told GasMart attendees in Denver Wednesday.

Experiencing a decade-long annual growth of 5% again last year, Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp. reported decreased consolidated earnings, compared to the previous year, for its growing distribution natural gas utility operations in Nevada, Arizona and the eastern fringe areas of California. Southwest is the major natural gas utility in both Nevada and Arizona, two of the fastest growing areas in the nation .

By the end of the decade, Cheniere Energy Inc. expects to have 11.4 Bcf/d of liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification capacity available along the Gulf Coast, with four deepwater ports, seven unloading docks and 15 storage tanks able to hold 51.7 Bcfe, CEO Charif Souki said Tuesday. However, the Houston-based company has a few issues causing some concern, including its ability to hire a capable workforce.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports may not be the final solution to the nation’s gas supply problem, but LNG imports are expected to grow dramatically over the next decade — at least 7% per year through 2015 as long as there is enough pipeline and storage infrastructure built to support the growth, industry experts said at an LNG conference in Houston on Wednesday.