Offer

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) on Sunday substantially increased its offer to take over Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and if completed, it already has an agreement in hand with Total SA to sell $8.8 billion of natural gas-rich African assets, including Anadarko’s proposed export project in Mozambique.

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Wednesday announced an offer to cover any losses suffered by Kinder Morgan Canada due to political resistance against its Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project across British Columbia.

In what will be the largest auction of its type, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) is to offer seven farm-out license contracts in southeastern Mexico, the industry regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) agreed Thursday.

The general partner ofPennTex Midstream Partners LP has recommended that its unitholders accept a tender offer of $20/unit from Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) for all of the partnership’s outstanding common units. PennTex has assets in North Louisiana. Last fall, ETPannounced a $640 million deal to acquire an interest in the assets, which serve Range Resources Corp., among other producers. PennTex received the unsolicited offer from ETP last month.

A Tulsa, OK-based synfuel technology company has entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an unnamed shale gas exploration and production (E&P) company to study the feasibility of a plant for turning natural gas into diesel.

Wyoming Interstate Co. LLC (WIC) pipeline has asked FERC to approve an offer of settlement and an accompanying stipulation and agreement (S&A) resolving allegations that it was over-recovering its costs, resulting in unjust and unreasonable rates for its shippers.

The Monterey Shale’s oil reserves could offer California a way out of any economic shortfall, according to Navigant Consulting’s energy director.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, may offer legislation to promote natural gas after his panel has completed its trio of gas forums this month, a spokesman for the committee told NGI.

The House has introduced legislation to open federal waters off the coast of Virginia to oil and natural gas development, and the Senate is expected to offer a companion bill in the coming weeks. Virginia lawmakers in Congress and at the state level have pressured the Interior Department to open the coastal waters to offshore development for years (see NGI, July 11, 2011). The Virginia Jobs and Energy Act (HR 1782), introduced by Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA), mandates that Lease Sale 220 be conducted within one year and that one lease sale be held in subsequent five-year oil and gas leasing programs. Co-sponsors are Virginia Republican Reps. Rob Wittman, Robert Hurt and Morgan Griffith. During the last Congress, Rigell introduced similar legislation (HR 3882) after the Obama administration shut down exploration off of Virginia’s coast. Provisions of the bill passed the House in 2012 as part of a larger energy package, but it failed to make it out of Congress.