Independent

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is in advanced negotiations to sell all of its midstream assets, including its stake in Chesapeake Midstream Partners LP (CHKM), for more than $4 billion, a transaction that could be completed in the next few days, sources told NGI’s Shale Daily on Wednesday. The bidder is said to be private equity giant Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which initially helped to fund the master limited partnership (MLP) and which continues to be a joint partner.

Following 30 years of declining oil output in the Lower 48 states, the United States now is well on its way to becoming energy independent — a structural supply shift that promises to reach well beyond oil and natural gas stocks, analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said in a note last week.

An uptick in Marcellus Shale development last year didn’t keep an independent auditor from certifying Pennsylvania’s state forests as sustainably managed.

Following 30 years of declining oil output in the Lower 48 states, the United States now is well on its way to becoming energy independent — a structural supply shift that promises to reach well beyond oil and natural gas stocks, analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said in a note Monday.

Under pressure to make its natural gas operations more independent of its electric utility business, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) said it is relocating its newly defined gas operations group in a large office complex in the East San Francisco Bay suburb of San Ramon, CA. Most of a contingent of 800 employees will be moved to the Bishop Ranch business park by October this year, a PG&E spokesperson said. Teams of employees now spread around in separate locations in San Francisco, Fresno, Walnut Creek and Concord, CA, will be brought together for the first time, the spokesperson said. Bringing together engineers, emergency dispatchers, system operators and others, Executive Vice President Nick Stavropoulos, the head of gas operations for the utility, said the utility “expects big gains in communication, efficiency and team building.” A new PG&E gas control center will be located in the San Ramon facilities as of the second quarter next year, Stavropoulos said. Regulators have criticized PG&E’s alleged lack of coordination in its gas operations in the wake of the September 2010 San Bruno transmission pipeline rupture and explosion.

Devon Energy and its affiliates have agreed to pay the federal government nearly $3.5 million to resolve claims made by a whistle blower that the independent producer underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced on federal and Native American lands, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

RegScan, a developer of regulatory compliance products, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) have jointly come up with a system to help oil and natural gas operators comply with the different well stages in the Marcellus Shale basin.

Independent power giant NRG Energy Inc. CEO David Crane predicted Wednesday that the entire energy sector would be impacted by continuing low natural gas prices this year. Crane was a keynote speaker at the Jefferies 2012 Global Clean Technology Conference in New York City.

Calgary independent Nexen Inc., which has been dealing with some internal strife after CEO Marvin Romanow abruptly resigned in January, on Thursday reported that quarterly profits were impacted by lower production and natural gas prices.