Helping

A solid performance in North America’s onshore during the first three months of 2011 lifted Halliburton Co.’s profits from a year ago, helping to overcome the losses in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and geopolitical turmoil overseas, CEO Dave Lesar said last week.

A solid performance in North America’s onshore during the first three months of 2011 lifted Halliburton Co.’s profits from a year ago, helping to overcome the losses in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and geopolitical turmoil overseas, CEO Dave Lesar said Monday.

Billionaire Carl Icahn, known for investing in what he considers underperforming companies and helping them to achieve a better value, has become Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s second-largest shareholder, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Baker Hughes Inc.’s management team reported Monday that the purchase of pressure pumping specialist BJ Services Inc. already is paying off, helping to boost quarterly profits both year/year and sequentially, with most of the uptick coming from work in North America’s unconventional basins.

Louisiana’s efforts to guide natural gas drillers to alternative water sources and to track the sources of water used in drilling operations are helping to protect groundwater resources in the state’s northwestern Haynesville Shale area, according to a report from the Louisiana Ground Water Resources Program (LGWRP).

Nicor Inc’s gas distribution and other energy-related businesses saw higher operating income in the first quarter, helping the Naperville, IL-based company to net income of $60.5 million ($1.33/share) in 1Q2010, an increase of 38% compared with $43.8 million (96 cents) in 1Q2009.

Maryland could reap economic and environmental benefits from helping its citizens improve home heating efficiency while reducing their consumption of natural gas, a University of Maryland study commissioned by the state’s Department of the Environment has found.

Competitive wholesale electricity markets are working well and, despite escalating fuel prices, independent system operators (ISO) are helping to keep energy prices down for consumers, the CEOs and market monitors of several ISOs told FERC last Tuesday.

In a demonstration aimed at helping cut diesel fuel emissions in the Port of Oakland, CA, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday the successful use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in a power-production process used on docked cargo ships to supply all of their electricity needs while in port. The utility called it a “milestone” in starting to clean up the air in and around the port.