Leadership

SandRidge Energy Inc. was able to come to terms with a hedge fund that sought to revamp the company’s leadership, but some shareholders apparently think the changes don’t go far enough.

As a formal set of proposed rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) moves through preliminary public review in California, Gov. Jerry Brown last Wednesday expressed confidence that his state’s oil and gas regulators would apply “science and common sense” to frack regulations.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) announced leadership of its committees and subcommittees for 2013 as elected by the MSC board of directors. Committee chairs announced by MSC are Range Resources’ Bill Burket (health and safety); Seneca Resources’ Mike Donovan (land affairs); Pennsylvania General Energy’s Craig Mayer (legal committee); MarkWest Energy Partners’ Dave Callahan (legislative committee); EOG Resources’ Gary Smith (membership committee); MarkWest’s Rob McHale (midstream/pipeline committee); Chesapeake Energy’s Will Freeman (natural gas use); XTO Energy’s Karen Matusic (public relations); Chief Oil & Gas’s Terry Bossert (regulatory); Chevron’s Alan Abel (research collaborative); Consol Energy’s Ryan Litwinovich (supply chain); Southwestern’s Jennifer Stewart (tax and fee); Range’s Joe Frantz (technical); Cabot Oil & Gas’s John Smelko (environmental stewardship); WPX Energy’s Charles McCandless (transportation); and Atlas Energy’s Viola Lazzer (workforce).

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has now filled its expanded senior leadership team for gas operations under Executive Vice President Nick Stavropoulos, who joined the San Francisco-based combination utility last year to head up a reorganized and more independent gas operating unit. Kevin Knapp signed on as vice president for gas distribution in March, bringing 30 years of industry experience, including National Grid and KeySpan; and Sean Kolassa assumed the new position of vice president, investment planning in February, bringing 15 years of gas experience. In addition, Roland Trevino, vice president for public safety and integrity management, joined PG&E last August after being a senior director at El Paso Natural Gas in Colorado. They join Mel Christopher, senior director for gas system operations, who also brought 30 years of gas industry when he joined PG&E last June. The other gas team leaders include PG&E veterans Kirk Johnson, vice president for gas transmission; Sumeet Singh, senior director of asset knowledge management who previously headed gas engineering operations; and Jane Yura, vice president for standards and policies.

Following the resignation of Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffett’s chief lieutenant, David Sokol, the leadership at MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. has appointed CEO Greg Abel chairman. Buffett said the conglomerate had been very successful in recent years in large part because of Sokol, calling his accomplishments “extraordinary,” and adding that Sokol and Abel “delivered the best performance of any managers in the public utility field.” Buffett stirred up Wall Street after the markets had closed Wednesday with the announcement that Sokol had submitted his resignation to strengthen his family’s financial resources. Buffett accepted the resignation, although twice in the past few years he and the Berkshire board had talked Sokol out of resigning. The resignation followed Berkshire’s March 13 announcement that it was buying specialty chemicals firm Lubrizol on the recommendation of Sokol, who purchased nearly 100,000 shares of the company for about $10 million earlier this year. Buffett said he learned about Sokol’s stock purchase March 19. While the stock purchase raised eyebrows on Wall Street, Sokol maintained that he had done nothing wrong regarding the Lubrizol acquisition — but told CNBC that if he had it to do over again, he would do things a bit differently. According to Buffett, before he overcame his skepticism and embraced the Lubrizol deal, he was leaning toward an acquisition by MidAmerican, which includes MidAmerican Energy Co., Kern River Gas Transmission Co., Northern Natural Gas, PacifiCorp, CE Electric UK and CalEnergy Generation.

With Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Warren Buffett’s chief lieutenant resigning last Monday, the leadership at MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. has moved up CEO Greg Abel to chairman to fill the place of David Sokol, 54, Buffett’s long-time go-to executive and potential successor to the Berkshire throne.

San Diego Gas and Electric Co. CEO Jessie Knight has been named the cochair of the Southern California Leadership Council, a regional economic development organization he helped found six years ago. Knight and former California Gov. Gray Davis co-chair the group, which seeks to provide a “platform” for business and community leaders to speak “as one voice” on public policy issues such as job creation.

Shale giant Chesapeake Energy Corp. “has one of the industry’s best collections of natural gas assets,” but “continuing concerns about the company’s profligate spending” and accounting methods led veteran analyst Philip H. Weiss of Argus Research to trim his recommendation to “sell” last week.

Victory for Republican candidate Tom Corbett in the race for governor of Pennsylvania and the replacement of split leadership in the legislature with the GOP takeover of both houses may be the death knell for a natural gas severance tax in the state — or not.