natural gas prices

FERC is seeking public comment on a proposed policy statement that would allow interstate natural gas pipelines to recover through surcharge or tracker mechanisms certain capital expenditures made to modernize pipeline system infrastructure to enhance reliability, safety and regulatory compliance.

The proposed $6.8 billion merger of Exelon Corp. and Pepco Holdings Inc. (PHI) was given a thumbs-up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC authorized the proposed merger and disposition of assets under section 203 of the Federal Power Act as consistent with the public interest. The item was on the Commission’s consent agenda for its Thursday meeting. The merger, which would create the top Mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility with close to 10 million customers, will combine Exelon’s three electric and gas utilities — Chicago’s Commonwealth Edison Co., Baltimore’s BGE and Philadelphia’s PECO — and PHI’s three electric and gas utilities — New Jersey’s Atlantic City Electric, Delaware’s Delmarva Power and Washington, DC and Maryland’s Pepco (see Daily GPI,April 30). The buyout is the first major transaction for Exelon since completing an $8 billion merger in 2012 with Constellation Energy (see Daily GPI, May 24, 2011). The merger is expected to close in mid-2015.

Martin Houston, former COO of BG Group plc, has been named chairman — TPH International, investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said. Houston, 56, will work with TPH’s Calgary and London offices to expand the firm’s cross-border presence in those markets, as well as provide expertise in the global gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets. Houston joined BG Group in the early 1980s and was serving on its board of directors when he retired as COO in early 2014. Houston was a key architect of BG Group’s LNG business. He also is the founding member of recently formed Parallax Energy (see Daily GPI,Oct. 24).

After a two-year investigation, a U.S. Senate subcommittee said Wednesday it is concerned about the involvement of three of the nation’s major bank holding companies in the commodities markets, claiming they engaged in risky activities and unfair trading advantages, and have inadequate safeguards in place to avert a financial disaster.

FERC’s Division of Investigations (DOI) entered into eight Commission-approved settlement agreements involving natural gas, electricity and hydropower during fiscal year 2014 (FY2014), assessing total civil penalties of about $25 million and disgorging more than $4 million in unjust profits and interest, according to a report released Thursday by the Office of Enforcement (OE).

The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill that would allow operators to include land owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), such as roads and highways, in their drilling units. After clearing the state House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee (see Shale Daily,Nov. 17), the full House approved the bill by a vote of 71-18. If it clears the state Senate, it would allow operators to lease ODOT land, making it easier to put together drilling units where such property has been a hurdle. The bill was a sweeping piece of legislation that dealt with everything from agriculture and natural resources, to toxic algae and telecommunications. By the time it passed, more than 100 amendments had been considered.

Scott Hamilton, who formerly worked as a land records manager for Consol Energy Inc., has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for a royalties scheme in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office said he stole $440,000 from the company’s interests at parcels in West Virginia and Illinois. Hamilton, 37, of Pennsylvania, was expected to make the plea after he reached an agreement with federal prosecutors in September (see Shale Daily,Sept. 23). In 2009, he established a fake company to file deed transfers that turned Consol’s royalty interests on the properties over to the phony business. Consol reported the missing royalties to the authorities. He is set to be sentenced in March.

A Pennsylvania congressman has expanded his investigation of how states regulate, monitor and punish the mishandling of waste generated by the horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) process by sending letters to the leaders of environmental agencies in Ohio and West Virginia.

Apache Corp. on Thursday agreed to sell natural gas-heavy properties in South Louisiana and the Anadarko Basin for $1.4 billion as it downshifts in North America and streamlines its operations.