Mcdonald

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) continues to test wells at the shuttered Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field and hopes to be given permission to restore at least partial operations there by the end of summer, the company said.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) is reminding oil and gas producers in a seven-county region of the Permian Basin in West Texas that they share the sky with an astronomical observatory that works best when the sky is kept as dark as possible.

Forest Oil Corp. struck a $1 billion deal to sell oil and gas assets in the Texas Panhandle to Templar Energy LLC as part of a deleveraging program that will allow the company to focus on the Eagle Ford Shale. One analyst called the sale a positive, but investors booed and sent Forest shares tumbling on Friday.

Lawmakers in the Vermont House of Representatives were to vote Friday on a bill that would ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Green Mountain State and require regulators with the state Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) to submit a report by 2015 on the best ways to regulate the practice.

FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff has tapped Thomas R. Sheets, a partner in the Las Vegas law firm of McDonald Carano Wilson, to be general counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, succeeding Cynthia Marlette. Sheets has more than 32 years of energy industry, administrative practice and regulatory hearing experience. He has served as chairman of the Nevada Tax Commission for the past four years and was senior vice president and general counsel of Southwest Gas Corp. As FERC general counsel, Sheets will represent the Commission before the courts and Congress and will be responsible for the legal aspects of the agency’s activities.

Just as McDonald’s ambition when it first started out was toserve one million customers, Eastern Enterprises – which last weekannounced plans to acquire its third gas distribution company inless than a year – says its immediate goal is to serve one millionnatural gas customers in New England.

Just as McDonald’s ambition when it first started out was toserve one million customers, Eastern Enterprises-which yesterdayannounced plans to acquire its third gas distribution company inless than a year-says its immediate goal is to serve one millionnatural gas customers in New England.

Rebecca McDonald, president and CEO of Amoco Energy Development,was named the 1998-1999 chairman of the Natural Gas SupplyAssociation last week. J. Larry Nichols, president of Devon EnergyCorp., was selected as vice chairman; Richard J. Sharples, vicepresident of marketing for Anadarko Petroleum, was madesecretary/treasurer.