Internal

Triangle Petroleum Corp. recorded the first profitable quarter in its history, is on track to meet its oil production goal for the year and is excited about its new joint venture (JV) in the Bakken Shale, even as it keeps at the ready plans to drop a drilling rig should policymakers in Washington, DC, fail to reach a compromise over the fiscal cliff.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who has been at the forefront of the chamber’s efforts to address cyber vulnerabilities involving the nation’s critical infrastructure, sent a letter to the American Gas Association (AGA) Thursday expressing concern about a recent report that said AGA-developed standards to protect data transmitted by control systems were abandoned because of the costs.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., which is facing scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), on Tuesday stripped company co-founder Aubrey K. McClendon of his role as chairman of the board of directors and terminated the Founder Well Participation Program (FWPP).

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s board of directors Thursday was working with CEO Aubrey McClendon to terminate early the Founder Well Participation Program (FWPP) in which the CEO has a contractual right to participate and invest up to a 2.5% working interest in every new well the company drills.

A divided Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday voted out a final rule establishing internal business conduct standards to shield customers from the risks associated with swap dealers (SD), as well as a new proposal on block trades.

A divided Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday voted out a final rule establishing internal business conduct standards to shield customers from the risks associated with swap dealers (SD), as well as a new proposal on block trades. During the meeting, commissioners vented their growing dissatisfaction both with the pace of the rulemaking process and the content of some of the rules being adopted.

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.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lost a bid to collect close to $4 million from the estate of former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay and his wife Linda. Kenneth Lay, 64, died of a heart attack in July 2006, six weeks after he was convicted on 10 fraud and conspiracy counts (see Daily GPI, July 6, 2006; May 26, 2006). The tax case dated to Sept. 21, 2001, when the Lays sold $10 million in annuities to Enron as part of an agreement for Kenneth Lay to retake the CEO position, which had been vacated by Jeffrey Skilling a month earlier. The agreement with Enron at the time stipulated that the annuities would be returned to Lay if he worked a 4.25-year term. However, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection less than three months later (see Daily GPI, June 21; May 3, 2006). The IRS contested the Lays’ contention in their 2006 tax filing that the annuities were sold to Enron for no monetary gain; in 2009 the IRS filed a notice of tax deficiency for $3.9 million. U.S. Tax Court Judge Joseph Goeke disagreed, ruling that the Lays’ transactions were legitimate and neither of the Lays nor the estate received any distributions or death benefit from the annuity.

An internal analysis indicates that Sempra Energy’s California utility natural gas pipeline system is safe, and its strategic assessments indicate there is plenty of room for growth within utility operations, Sempra Energy’s new CEO told financial analysts on a conference call last Tuesday.