Focus

Pavilion Energy Pte. Ltd., a new S$1 billion (US$806.5 million) company was established by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. with a focus on meeting Asia’s growing energy demand, particularly through liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Houston-based Sanchez Energy Corp. is buying producing acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale for $265 million that will more than double current company-wide production and increase proved reserves by 63%.

Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc. is considering a plan to exit shale development in Poland, a move that helps the company focus elsewhere but is also a blow to what was once considered Europe’s best source for shale natural gas and a hedge against pipeline gas supplies from Russia.

Energy and telecommunications infrastructure are the focus of a new agreement between units of General Electric Corp. (GE) and Google that would allow GE’s Smallworld natural gas, electricity and telecommunications applications to integrate data from Google Maps. The goal is better capability for gas operators and other utilities to manage operations and system outages. GE is developing a set of small, focused applications for the Internet, mobile devices and desktop computers, and the Google mapping data is a component of that effort.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) wants to hire a “state regulatory and legislative affairs manager” based in Washington, DC, who would to focus on natural gas. The manager would ” assist in organizing and managing efforts to enact a comprehensive set of regulations and reforms in key natural gas producing states,” with emphasis on the Appalachian region. The selected applicant would help “create and manage strategic coalitions and relationships with industry, regulators, policymakers, “grasstops” opinion leaders” and other nongovernmental organizations. Information is available at www.edf.org/jobs/state-regulatory-and-legislative-affairs-manager-natural-gas-program.

Drilling in Eastern Tennessee’s dry gas Chattanooga Shale play has ceased due to low natural gas prices, so the focus has shifted to extracting oil from the state’s Fort Payne formation, which lies atop the Chattanooga. Miller Energy Resources, Inc. this week is shipping its first tanker truckload of oil produced from the Fort Payne’s only unconventional well, according to Gary Bible, vice president of geology for the Knoxville, TN-based firm.

Six months after selling its Appalachian Basin portfolio to focus on the oily Eagle Ford Shale, Penn Virginia Corp. (PVA) said its operations in the latter were moving forward while proved reserves of oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) had increased during 2012.

Chevron Corp. is directing about $7.5 billion for U.S. upstream projects in 2013, with most of the focus on deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) projects, the producer said.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) will focus on two areas as it investigates the recent natural gas explosion on the Columbia Gas Co. of Massachusetts’ system that rocked Springfield, MA — when the sidewalk markings indicating the location of the distribution system were made and why they were incorrect, a department spokeswoman told NGI.