Extensive

With the aim of focusing more attention on the company’s extensive Appalachian Basin exploration and production holdings, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said Thursday that it plans to build a new eastern regional headquarters in Charleston, WV, in a semi-circular design “reflecting the rotation of a drillbit.”

Dominion, which is selling off its extensive North American exploration and production (E&P) businesses, on Thursday said it will merge subsidiary Consolidated Natural Gas Co. (CNG) into Dominion Resources Inc. to streamline its corporate structure.

FERC last Tuesday reversed its earlier position and approved Northern Natural Gas pipeline’s request to sell its extensive West Hugoton gas pipeline facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma to a Midland, TX-based energy company.

FERC Tuesday reversed its earlier position and approved Northern Natural Gas pipeline’s request to sell its extensive West Hugoton gas pipeline facilities in Kansas and Oklahoma to a Midland, TX-based energy company.

While the U.S. oil and gas sector makes extensive use of derivatives to manage commodity price risk, and in some cases make a speculative buck, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said producer hedging practices have little impact on corporate credit ratings. This is mainly due to the fact that most companies hedge production only as far out as two years or so, and the ratings agency takes a longer-term view when assessing credit.

While the U.S. oil and gas sector makes extensive use of derivatives to manage commodity price risk, and in some cases make a speculative buck, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said producer hedging practices have little impact on corporate credit ratings. This is mainly due to the fact that most companies hedge production only as far out as two years or so, and the ratings agency takes a longer-term view when assessing credit.

Forest Oil Corp. said Monday it will spin off its extensive offshore Gulf of Mexico operations and merge the spin-off with a subsidiary of Mariner Energy Inc. in a stock-for-stock transaction. The move will make Denver-based Forest a pure onshore resource company and elevate Mariner into a leading offshore independent.

One of the nation’s largest merchant energy marketers, recently renamed and publicly held Commerce Energy Group, Inc., Monday named a new CEO with an extensive energy background, Steven S. Boss. He will bring along a new chief financial officer following last week’s removal of the president/CEO and CFO at the Southern California-based firm.

Dynegy Inc., which started life as the Natural Gas Clearinghouse in the 1980s, would cut the cord on its last tie to the natural gas business with its proposed sale of its extensive midstream natural gas liquids (NGL) asset and marketing network, a move that analysts say could bring in as much as $3 billion. The Houston-based company put its NGL business on the market with an announcement last week.