Director

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon and National Oilwell Varco CEO Pete Miller, the lead independent director of the board, late Tuesday sent a letter to shareholders addressing “certain issues” raised last week by John Liu, the City of New York’s comptroller, who oversees the city’s pension funds.

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) has named a new vice president/treasurer, Christopher Stavros, 48, who has been the oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) company’s director of investor relations since 2006. Stavros will continue to oversee the investor relations function in his new capacity, according to Oxy CEO Stephen Chazen, who said Stavros has a comprehensive understanding of both the financial and operational aspects of Oxy and its E&P business. Before joining Oxy in 2005, Stavros held positions with Ernst & Young, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Prudential Securities and UBS. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston University and an MBA from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has named a retired brigadier general Jack Hagan director of the beefed up Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) at the CPUC. He starts the assignment April 23. Since the San Bruno pipeline explosion, more attention has been focused on this unit in the state regulatory commission. Hagan said his priority will be to “shift safety enforcement” emphasis from compliance to one of “ensuring that all regulated entities operate under a culture based on risk assessment.” Hagan retired in 1999 after 28 years as a Marine Corps infantry officer and was called back to service with the California governor’s Office of Homeland Security in 2003.

San Antonio-based Howard Energy Partners said Thursday it will acquire the Eagle Ford Escondido Gathering System, which is partially owned by Laredo Energy, and the Cuervo Creek Gathering System from Meritage Midstream Services. Both systems are primarily 12- 16-inch diameter high-pressure gas pipelines. The transaction is expected to close in April.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Citizens Advisory Council has appointed Marjorie Hughes as executive director. The 18-member council reviews the work of the DEP and makes recommendations to the department, the governor and the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Hughes comes to the position following 35 years working on environmental and transportation issues for state and local governments, most recently serving as the chief of the DEP’s Conservation District Support Division in the Bureau of Waterways and Wetlands. She is replacing Sue Wilson, who retired from the position in December after 19 years.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and federal Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey will help Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead co-chair a sage grouse task force, Mead announced Friday. The task force will review ways states can provide sage grouse management tools and habitat protections. As means of potentially avoiding the need to list sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act, the task force was created in December following a meeting in Wyoming among U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and officials from 10 states that have habitat for the greater sage grouse, a large, ground-dwelling bird that lives at elevations of 4,000 to 9,000 feet (see Daily GPI, Jan. 11). In 2009 Wyoming instituted a “Sage-Ground Core Area Protection” program. Mead has continued the push for state-led actions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Monday approved DCP Midstream LP’s request to build an 11-mile pipeline to transport gas from the Niobrara Shale in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin to interstate natural gas markets served by the Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) pipeline. The proposed $12 million pipeline facilities (LaSalle Residue Line) would connect to the proposed LaSalle processing plant in Weld County, CO. The only shipper on the proposed line would be DCP. DCP Midstream is a joint venture of Spectra Energy and ConocoPhillips. Based on new production in the Niobrara Shale in the DJ Basin, DCP told FERC it plans to construct the 110 MMcf/d LaSalle gas processing plant and a new gathering pipeline in Weld County (see Shale Daily, May 16, 2011).

Michael C. Linn, who founded Linn Energy LLC in 2003, is retiring from the company and is stepping down as executive chairman at the end of the year. Linn is to continue to serve as a director. Linn President and CEO Mark E. Ellis is to add the role of chairman to his responsibilities. Under Linn’s leadership, the Houston-based producer became the first publicly traded exploration and production (E&P) limited liability company in 2006 (see Daily GPI, March 9, 2007). The company now has an enterprise value of close to $10 billion with focus areas in the Midcontinent and Permian and Williston basins, as well as Michigan and California — “far more successful than I ever envisioned,” said Linn. Linn Energy grew from a “small company in Pittsburgh, with a few natural gas wells and three employees, to a company that ranks among the largest independent E&P companies in the U.S. and has 800 employees across the nation. Throughout that growth, we have increased our quarterly cash distribution to unitholders by more than 70%,” Linn said.

Lawmakers in North Carolina should consider several health and environmental measures as they weigh the legalization of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in their state, researchers at Duke University said in a new report.