Executives

Citing the U.S. domestic natural gas boom fueled by shale plays, San Diego-based Sempra Energy executives said Thursday the company’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit will soon file with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for an export permit at the Sempra LNG import terminal at Cameron, LA.

Pressure pumping services in North American unconventional basins appear to be on the cusp of oversupply, Schlumberger Ltd. executives said Friday.

Pressure pumping services in North American unconventional basins appear to be on the cusp of oversupply, Schlumberger Ltd. executives said Friday.

A lawsuit filed by Amaranth Advisors LLC claiming JPMorgan Chase & Co. executives helped to cause the natural gas hedge fund to collapse may not proceed, New York Supreme Court Judge O. Peter Sherwood has ruled. The hedge fund imploded in a $6.4 billion debacle in 2006 on bad bets on natural gas futures and derivatives deals. Amaranth sued the bank a year later for its alleged role in the fund’s demise, claiming that JPMorgan officials interfered in a deal with Citadel by disparaging Amaranth’s financial condition (see NGI, Nov. 19, 2007). In a 32-page ruling Sherwood said Citadel had “conducted its own research in connection with the proposed transaction with the fund and evidence of the tenuousness of the fund’s financial condition was readily available” (Amaranth LLC v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., No. 603756/2007, New York Supreme Court, New York County).

For the first time since the recession hit in 2008, energy growth has been measured in Oregon, according to senior executives at Portland General Electric (PGE), who reported slightly reduced year/year earnings during a second quarter conference call with financial analysts last week. As a result, PGE’s latest plans call for increased natural gas-fired power generation — both peaking and baseload.

For the first time since the recession hit, energy growth has been measured in Oregon, according to senior executives at Portland General Electric (PGE), who reported slightly reduced year/year earnings during a second quarter conference call with financial analysts. As a result, PGE’s latest plans call for increased natural gas-fired power generation — both peaking and baseload.

SM Energy Co. raised its guidance for 2011 and introduced plans for 2012 that surpass what analysts were expecting as company executives emphasized a sharpened focus on the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

SM Energy Co. raised its guidance for 2011 and introduced plans for 2012 that surpass what analysts were expecting as company executives emphasized a sharpened focus on the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

ConocoPhillips has since the beginning of this year quietly amassed more than 340,000 net acres in promising North American plays, executives said last week.