Founder

For gas producers, nothing fails like success, it would seem, as prices continue to founder on the strength of robust production out of unconventional plays. With normal weather, the industry will face record inventories at the end of next October, warned Barclays Capital analysts in a Wednesday note.

For gas producers, nothing fails like success, it would seem, as prices continue to founder on the strength of robust production out of unconventional plays. With normal weather, the industry will face record inventories at the end of next October, warned Barclays Capital analysts in a note last Wednesday.

Pulling energy professional resources provider Skipping Stone out from under the Commerce Energy umbrella, Skipping Stone President Greg Lander and founder Peter Weigand have partnered to acquire the company for an undisclosed sum. Founded by Weigand in 1996, Skipping Stone will continue to focus on the energy industry. The partners are expanding the company’s existing consulting service offerings to add interim management and contract resources, as well as executive search services. “We are pleased with the transaction and believe it results in Skipping Stone being better positioned to serve its clients by returning to its original focus of providing clients with seasoned energy industry veterans to help develop and evaluate strategic alternatives, pursue opportunities and solve problems,” said Lander. The purchase included all of the assets, intellectual property, client contracts and the operational and consulting personnel. Included in the assets is Capacity Center, www.capacitycenter.com, a wholly owned subsidiary that provides interstate gas pipeline capacity release transactions and other capacity and operational information to physical and financial trading companies and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Skipping Stone’s headquarters are in Boston with additional locations in Chicago, Houston, Tampa and Orange County, CA. The company has more than 200 clients worldwide in the natural gas, electricity, renewable energy, software and clean energy technology markets.

John W. Nichols, 93, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Devon Energy Corp., has died following a lengthy illness. Nichols began his career as an auditor for Oklahoma City-based oil and gas producers. As a certified public accountant, Nichols registered the world’s first public oil and gas drilling fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His investment fund raised more than $1.4 million within a few months, and using the seed money, Nichols and F.G. “Blackie” Blackwood in 1941 established an oil company to explore the northeast corner of New Mexico’s San Juan Basin. Nichols founded Devon in 1971 and asked his oldest son G. Larry Nichols to partner with him. Their first acquisition was five natural gas wells southeast of Dallas. Devon went public in 1988 and Nichols retired in 1999; his son is now chairman and CEO. Devon today is considered the largest independent oil and natural gas producer in the United States, with operations extending through Canada and overseas. At the end of 2007 Devon had proven reserves of 2.5 billion boe and an enterprise value of $59 billion. Devon also is Oklahoma’s largest publicly traded company. Funeral services are scheduled for Thursday at First Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City.

Constellation Energy is selling its Fellon-McCord & Associates energy consulting and management subsidiary to the company’s co-founder, Andrew R. “Drew” Fellon, splitting it from its Constellation NewEnergy retail natural gas sales unit, the company said Thursday. The move comes five years after Constellation acquired the Kentucky-based retail marketer.

Dan L. Duncan, founder and majority owner of Enterprise Products Partners LP, and his wife, Jan, are donating $35 million to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The donation is the second largest in M.D. Anderson’s history; in 2007 Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens donated $50 million. With the Duncans’ gift, which will be allotted over 10 years, M.D. Anderson plans to establish the Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment. Duncan is a prostate cancer survivor, and his father died of leukemia. Duncan’s his first wife died of breast cancer and his second died of ovarian cancer. The Duncans in 2006 donated $100 million to the Baylor College of Medicine for its cancer center in Houston, which was renamed the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center. Duncan is considered Houston’s wealthiest resident. He has a net worth of $7.9 billion and was ranked 117th on Forbes Magazine’s 2008 list of the world’s richest people.

A third proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Oregon expects to make its formal filing to FERC by the end of June, according to the CEO and founder of Oregon LNG, the Vancouver, WA-based company that acquired development rights for Calpine Corp.’s former Skipanon LNG project near the mouth of the Columbia River in Warrenton, OR.

A third proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Oregon expects to make its formal filing to FERC by the end of June, according to the CEO and founder of Oregon LNG, the Vancouver, WA-based company that acquired development rights for Calpine Corp.’s former Skipanon LNG project near the mouth of the Columbia River in Warrenton, OR.

The widow of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay stated in a court filing in Houston Friday that her husband never committed any crimes, and she is entitled to keep all of the property and money that the government is seeking from his estate.