Founder

Chesapeake Energy Corp. co-founder Aubrey McClendon was re-elected as chairman and CEO on Friday, despite a call for his ouster by an influential shareholder advisory firm.

Mountainview Energy Ltd. announced Wednesday that its founder, Joseph Montalban, has resigned from the company’s board of directors effective May 19. Montalban began his career in the oil and gas industry in the early 1950s, first as a roughneck in Alberta and then as a vice president for Flank Oil. He discovered oil in the Bakken Shale after drilling the Bugby #1 well in Glacier County, MT for Flank in 1957. He formed Montalban Drilling in the late 1950s and two public companies in the early 1970s, which would become MSR Exploration Ltd. in 1983. He also founded Gyspy Highview Gathering System Inc. In 2001 Montalban and his son, Patrick, formed Mountainview, which trades on the TSX Venture Exchange. Mountainview, based in Cut Bank, MT, is focused on exploration, production and development of the Bakken and Three Forks shales in the Williston Basin and the south Alberta Bakken shale play.

A co-founder of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California Irvine campus, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has invested $1 million in Oregon-based fuel cell manufacturer ClearEdge Power. The utility has been involved in the testing and demonstration of fuel cells for the past four decades. ClearEdge has a product that is a combined heat-power (CHP) fuel cell that claims to reduce carbon emissions by one-third and other pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds, ash and particulates, to trace levels. The Sempra utility cited a recent business intelligence report for the fuel cell industry, projecting a 10-fold increase in the sector from, $2 billion to $20 billion. SoCalGas said it envisions the advance of fuel cells as greatly reducing the nation’s reliance on coal and helping boost its use of natural gas.

George P. Mitchell, founder of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp. and one of the pioneers of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) and drilling technologies in natural gas shale, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gas Technology Institute. A petroleum engineer with geology training from Texas A&M University, Mitchell was one of the first to believe natural gas could be extracted from shale. Not wanting his oil wells to go to waste in the event of flow shortages, Mitchell employees drilled into the little-explored Barnett Shale in North Texas beginning in the 1990s and tested hydrofracing techniques on more than 30 wells, with some wells’ production barely even covering the cost of operation. Devon Energy Corp. acquired the company in 2002 and subsequently revolutionized the unconventional shale gas play (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25, 2002; Aug. 15, 2001). “I’m truly honored to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gas Technology Institute,” said Mitchell. “I believe that the United States should examine all forms of natural gas in order to ease our dependence on coal and foreign oil. It is my hope that my efforts will aid the search for new and unconventional energy sources that can be used by my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., which was acquired in 2005 by Cimarex Energy Co., last week assumed its former identity with its founder back at the helm.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., which was acquired in 2005 by Cimarex Energy Co., this week assumed its former identity with its founder back at the helm.

Western Gas Partners LP, which was formed by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to operate and develop midstream assets, plans to pay its founder $107 million to acquire some midstream properties in Anadarko’s prized Greater Natural Buttes Field in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah.

While other industries founder on the economic rocks, natural gas transmission and distribution (T&D) companies are riding out the storm, according to Moody’s Investor’s Service, which sees the industry as “stable” for the next 12 to 18 months.

While other industries founder on the economic rocks, natural gas transmission and distribution (T&D) companies are riding out the storm, according to Moody’s Investor’s Service, which sees the industry as “stable” for the next 12 to 18 months.