Might

Any U.S. oil and gas wildcatter looking for a way to get on the Forbes annual Billionaires list might take a hint from some of the interests among those who made this year’s list, published Monday. They like oil and they like natural gas, and many of them especially like shale.

BreitBurn Energy Partners LP is adding to its Permian Basin portfolio after agreeing to pay about $860 million for stakes in Whiting Petroleum Corp.’s Postle and North East Hardesty oilfields in Oklahoma.

Once exports of liquefied U.S. natural gas begin, the global gas market will get its formal introduction to the hub in Louisiana named Henry. The response might only be a shrug, or even less. But gas markets will feel the hub’s presence, IHS Inc. Vice Chairman Dan Yergin told a Houston audience.

John Hofmeister is a man on a mission.

CenterPoint Energy Inc., OGE Energy Corp. and ArcLight Capital Partners are forming a new midstream master limited partnership (MLP) that will start off with 8,400 miles of interstate and 2,300 miles of intrastate pipelines in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, plus some other assets.

Southeast Asian markets are growing in attractiveness to would-be liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers while India might not offer all that some would think, a Wood Mackenzie analyst said.

Encana Corp. President and CEO Randy Eresman’s sudden departure last Friday is fueling speculation by energy analysts and investors about who might become his successor. Encana director Clayton H. Woitas, who is CEO of privately held Range Royalty Management Ltd., will be interim president and CEO until a successor is named.

Everyone knows “Texas tea” means oil, but in the Lone Star state, ethylene produced from booming supplies of natural gas liquids (NGL) might come to be known as “Texas sweetened tea” for the profitability it’s bringing to the Gulf Coast petrochemical industry.

In Montana in a “forgotten corner of the Williston Basin,” a Texas company is gathering up acreage with the expectation that it can turn what some call the False Bakken into a true gem. And if that doesn’t work, northeast Montana has more to offer in and near the Bakken Petroleum System.