General

The chief of General Motors (GM) last week urged President Obama to appoint a blue ribbon committee whose only goal would be to develop a 30-year energy policy plan for the United States.

The chief of General Motors (GM) on Wednesday urged President Obama to appoint a blue ribbon committee whose only goal would be to develop a 30-year energy policy plan for the United States.

Denver-based DCP Midstream Partners LP announced a $626 million dropdown from DCP Midstream of an additional 47% interest in its Eagle Ford joint venture, bringing its ownership to 80%. It’s the largest dropdown in the history of the partnership.

A Michigan landowner has filed a lawsuit alleging that Chesapeake Energy Corp., Encana Corp. and a state-based operator conspired to rig a state oil and gas leasehold auction in 2010.

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.

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. did something in the final three months of 2012 that no other onshore oilfield services provider has announced yet: hydraulic fracturing (fracking) services climbed and sales surpassed expectations — surprising even company executives.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has finalized revisions to general permits for natural gas-fired engines and equipment at compressor stations, which are “75-90%” stricter than current limits for the largest, most common types of engines used at compressor stations. DEP also is suggesting revisions to one section of the air quality permit exemption list governing well drilling sites.

Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) said Thursday that a utility owned and operated option has won the bidding to develop a 220 MW natural gas-fired peaking generation facility to be located adjacent to baseload gas-fired electric generation plants operated by PGE northwest of the Portland metropolitan area.

With its acquisition of Copano Energy LLC, announced Wednesday, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) will expand its footprint in Texas shale plays, the Eagle Ford in particular, as it adds gas gathering, processing, treating and natural gas liquids fractionation assets.