Effective

Ahead of the annual shareholder meeting on Friday, Chesapeake Energy Corp. acquiesced to demands of major shareholder groups and Carl Icahn, who now holds 7.8% of the stock, and said four existing independent directors would resign from the board. The company also has put up for sale 337,481 net acres in its prized Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, which would give it less than one million acres in the play.

A study of data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that showed the percentage of wells with pollution events has declined, thanks at least in part to the state’s regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), was not “peer-reviewed,” as it was originally described, according to an editor’s note issued since the study’s release.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has withdrawn the “imminent and substantial endangerment order” that it issued against Range Resources Corp. in December 2010 for alleged methane contamination of water wells in North Texas.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) appointed Zak Covar executive director for the agency effective May 1. Covar has served as deputy executive director since August 2009. He succeeds Mark Vickery, who is retiring from state government after 25 years of service. From 2005 to 2007, Covar worked as the environmental and natural resource adviser to Gov. Rick Perry and was responsible for advising the governor and senior staff on all major budget and policy issues pertaining to the TCEQ, the Railroad Commission of Texas and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Effective with Evening Cycle nominations (Cycle 2) for Wednesday’s gas day, Ruby Pipeline increased operationally available capacity for the Ruby West Constraint to 1,460 MMcf/d, which is the system’s total design capacity.

Southwest Gas issued a Hold Burn to Scheduled Quantities notice, effective Monday, due to a low-linepack Alert Day that was declared by upstream pipeline Transwestern that afternoon (see Daily GPI, Dec. 6a). Southwest said it did not plan on flowing any gas from Transwestern for Monday’s gas day and therefore did not declare an OFO, but would issue an OFO “should this situation change.”

Northwest is reducing the available capacity at the Spokane Mead throughput point to 130,000 Dth/d effective Friday, saying demand in the Spokane, WA, area is not sufficient for it to schedule full design capacity at Starr Road. “This reduction is necessary to ensure operational reliability on the Spokane Lateral,” the pipeline said. “If necessary, Northwest will also cut alternate gas at other points on the lateral to maintain operational integrity. As the weather turns colder and the Spokane area can effectively burn the gas being nominated at Starr Road, Northwest will return all points on the lateral to design capacity.”

Production from shale plays — natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL) and crude oil — lifted Enterprise Products Partners LP to record quarterly earnings during the third quarter. The company remains bullish on supply of and demand for NGLs and Tuesday announced the anchor shipper on a landmark project that would carry ethane from the Marcellus Shale to the Gulf Coast.

Brian Gilvary, who has worked at BP plc for 25 years, has been named CFO effective Jan. 1 and will join the board of directors. Current CFO Byron Grote, 63, will become executive vice president, corporate business activities. Gilvary, 49, has been deputy group CFO and head of finance for BP for nearly two years. He previously was CEO of BP’s commodity trading arm, Integrated Supply and Trading (IST). He also has been a board member of TNK-BP since December, having previously also served on the board from 2003 to 2005. Grote, 63, has been CFO since 2002. In his new role he will have responsibility for BP’s IST, alternative energy and shipping businesses as well as the company’s technology and remediation management activities.