Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, 59, has reached agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that could allow him to be free as soon as 2017, according to a court filing. Under the agreement, Skilling is waiving his rights to any further appeals and would allow more than $40 million of his forfeited assets to be distributed to victims of Enron’s colossal collapse in 2001. Skilling was convicted in 2006 by a Houston jury on 19 criminal counts and originally was sentenced to federal prison for 24 years and four months (see NGI, May 29, 2006). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans twice said the sentence had been miscalculated by the district court (see NGI, April 11, 2011). “The proposed agreement brings certainty and finality to a long painful process,” said Skilling lawyer Daniel M. Petrocelli. “Although the recommended sentence for Jeff would still be more than double any other Enron defendant, all of whom have long been out of prison, Jeff will at least have the chance to get back a meaningful part of his life.”
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The FracTracker Alliance and Mountain Watershed Association (MWA) are offering free training sessions across southeastern Pennsylvania for citizens who want to utilize the mapping capability of fractracker.org, a web-based tool for tracking and visualizing data related to shale gas extraction operations. The sessions “will show people how to find where drilling operations are located and learn more about them, according to MWA, which said the tool is already being used by citizen water monitoring volunteers and community advocates. Sessions are scheduled in Washington County Feb. 26, Butler County March 26, and Westmoreland County April 30, with more sessions planned through October. Information and registration is available by contacting Melissa Troutman (melissa@mtwatershed.com, (724) 455-4200 ext 6). The training sessions are sponsored by the Heinz Endowments (see Shale Daily, Sept. 2, 2011).
Northeast Leads Broad Decline, But Futures Stay In Range
Physical natural gas prices on average plunged 77 cents Monday, but free-falling prices on Northeast pipelines such as Algonquin, Iroquois and portions of Tennessee and Transco skewed the results. If those points are taken out of the mix, the decline was 10 cents. At the close of futures trading March had fallen 0.7 cent to $3.279 and April was down 0.9 cent to $3.346. March crude oil added $1.31 to $97.03/bbl.
Canada’s Shales More Costly than Those in U.S.
A small handful of cold, hard numbers tells why Canadian shale gas is forced to rely on elusive Asian exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to thaw out drilling prospects
Northeast, East Lead Broad Market Retreat; Futures Down
Cash prices tumbled an average of about a half-dollar Wednesday, led by free-falling multi-dollar drops in New England and other eastern and Northeast points. If those extra-volatile points are removed from the calculations, the overall average drop was of nearly a quarter.
Another Louisiana LNG Export Facility Planned
Magnolia LNG LLC, a unit of Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., (LNG Ltd.) last week applied to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export up to 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied U.S. natural gas to U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) countries, the company said.
Australian Company Planning Louisiana LNG Export Facility
Magnolia LNG LLC, a unit of Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd., (LNG Ltd.) on Tuesday applied to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export up to 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of liquefied U.S. natural gas to U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) countries, the company said.
Floating LNG Export Project Gets FTA OK
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has authorized a unit of Cambridge Energy Holding LLC to export domestically sourced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to free trade agreement (FTA) parties from a proposed Louisiana terminal under multiple contracts.
Cameron a Go As Export Terminal, Sempra Execs Say
With or without a still-pending federal approval for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to non-free trade agreement (FTA) nations, Sempra Energy is moving ahead with permit applications and engineering plans at its existing Cameron, LA, LNG import facility, Sempra executives said Tuesday.
DOE Asked to Explain Criteria for Approving, Rejecting LNG Exports
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has sent a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE) to “understand the criteria” used to determinate whether liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to a non-Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries “are in the public interest.”
