Friday

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is planning to exit the physical commodities business, including its remaining holdings of commodities assets and its physical trading operations.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Friday revised its outlook for Chesapeake Energy Corp. to “stable” from “negative,” citing the new CEO as part of the reason. Former Anadarko Petroleum Corp. executive Doug Lawler took over in June (see NGI, May 27).

A preliminary analysis released last Friday by state and federal energy officials has recast doubts about the future of a $4 billion project that involves what would be California’s first commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility slated for the state’s oil patch in the southern end of the central valley west of Bakersfield.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) late last Friday filed its second annual report to state regulators summarizing its progress on current and future work aimed at improving its natural gas system’s safety as mandated by a state law (SB 705) passed in 2011 in response to the 2010 San Bruno transmission pipeline failure. Under its pipeline safety enhancement plan, PG&E told the California Public Utilities Commission that it has strength-tested 456 miles of its 6,750-mile gas transmission pipeline system. The utility said its has installed 76 automated shutoff valves on critical parts of the system while validating the safe operating pressure for the entire system. In addition, the utility said it is pursuing an internationally recognized gas safety certification for its system called “Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 55”; it also has established an employee-led company wide, grassroots safety committee to promote safe work habits, best practices and open communications; and it has a new Corrective Action Program to collect and act on gas system issues and ideas though a central internal company processing center. In addition, PG&E said its ongoing gas safety plan overall has been reviewed by several outside parties and includes input from employees at all levels of the PG&E gas operations organization.

A global leader in natural gas engines, Vancouver, BC-based Westport Innovations Inc. last Friday said it has acquired a leading conversion company, BAF Technologies Inc., from Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the California-based natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling company. Westport secured the deal with $25 million worth of its stock.

A global leader in natural gas engines, Vancouver, BC-based Westport Innovations Inc. on Friday said it has acquired a leading conversion company, BAF Technologies Inc., from Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the California-based natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling company. Westport secured the deal with $25 million worth of its stock.

The House Friday passed legislation that would open more federal waters to oil and natural gas exploration and production, but the bill has next to no chance of advancing in the Senate and being signed into law by President Obama.

A deal was finalized Friday in a Houston federal court to reduce the prison sentence of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling by almost a decade to 14 years, making him eligible for release from a Denver federal prison in 2017. The Department of Justice in May had reached an agreement with Skilling, 59, under which Skilling waived his right to any further appeals and allowed more than $40 million of his forfeited assets to be distributed to victims of Enron’s collapse in 2001 (see Daily GPI, May 9). Skilling was convicted in 2006 on 19 criminal counts and sentenced to 24 years and four months (see Daily GPI, May 26, 2006). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans twice said the sentence had been miscalculated (see Daily GPI, April 8, 2011).

FERC on Friday issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Tallgrass Interstate Gas Transmission’s proposal to convert the Pony Express Pipeline to meet the increasing demand for crude oil transportation service out of the Bakken formation.