Exec

Natural gas’ share of worldwide energy use will shoot up to 25% from its current level of about 20%, said Scott Nauman, gas marketing manager for the Americas at ExxonMobil, predicting that oil and natural gas will continue for the next 50 years to be the dominant fuels, with gas’ proportion growing as its annual growth rate outstrips both oil and coal.

“A tremendous ramp up of natural gas prices” over the past five years has been a shot of adrenaline for the fledgling hydrogen industry and those high prices are not going away, boding well for the further development of steps toward a hydrogen-based economy, according to Jon Slangerup, CEO of Ontario, Canada-based Stuart Energy, a provider of electrolysis-based hydrogen systems worldwide.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s former CEO of exploration and production (E&P) stated this week that he had uncovered the company’s reserves discrepancies after he took over the business unit and had repeatedly warned top management of the problems before they were publicly disclosed in January (see Daily GPI, Jan. 12).

The federal judge who sentenced ex-Dynegy Inc. accountant Jamie Olis to 24 years in prison last month was asked by the defense to reconsider.

The federal judge who sentenced ex-Dynegy Inc. accountant Jamie Olis to 24 years in prison last week was asked on Monday to reconsider.

Jamie Olis, 38, a former tax executive for Dynegy Inc., was sentenced Thursday to 24 years in prison for his role in disguising the company’s finances within a transaction dubbed “Project Alpha,” which hid $300 million in debt.

A proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month by PG&E Corp. indicated its CEO’s compensation doubled last year, reaching almost $20 million, including stock options. Separately, a spokesperson for the holding company for the Chapter 11-protected Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility said the firm earlier in the year paid out $83 million in retention bonuses to 17 top executives in the parent, utility and former merchant energy units.

Incremental LNG supplies are not something that’s going to happen all at once. New terminals will make their way through the permitting and construction process one by one, and the additional supplies will help offset declining production in other areas, according to an ExxonMobil executive.

The United States’ expectations that liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be the “savior” for its gas supply problems may be too high, said a top official with American Electric Power (AEP) last Tuesday.