Paid

Americans are fuming about retention bonuses paid to executives at bailed-out American International Group; they’re sore from the stock market crash, and they still remember sky-high gasoline and home-heating costs of not so long ago. In other words, “the people are not happy,” a Washington, DC, lawyer told energy traders in Houston Thursday before letting them in on the “craziness that’s going on in Washington with respect to your business.”

Producers paid $9.12 million for leasing rights and rental fees on parcels in mostly southern and eastern Wyoming that were offered by Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in its bimonthly federal oil and lease auction earlier this week. The receipts will be shared almost equally between the federal government and the state of Wyoming.

More than $500 million in revenue bonds used for pre-paid long-term natural gas supplies for a group of Southern California public power providers were downgraded to “A2” from “A1” by Moody’s Investors Service Tuesday. The bonds are part of the A-rated Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA), a joint powers authority formed more than two decades ago as an infrastructure financing arm for a dozen public-sector electric utilities.

Intensive application of improved drilling methods has paid off for an aggressive “junior” among Canadian natural gas producers while highlighting an industry trend of using technology to tap targets previously regarded as beyond economic reach.

Aaristo Commodities and Futures DMCC of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, paid a $100,000 civil penalty for engaging in illegal trading in the U.S. natural gas, oil, copper and gold markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said Wednesday.

Following Monday’s trading blueprint, March natural gas futures paid a second visit to the $9.300 price level before being rebuffed once again. The prompt-month contract traded between $9.115 and $9.305 before closing out Tuesday at $9.206, up 2 cents on the day.

The bet made by Pioneer Natural Resources Co. to focus on U.S. exploration appears to paid off — proved reserves grew by 128 MMboe last year, and the producer replaced 357% of production primarily in its core onshore areas and through several key U.S. acquisitions.

XTO Energy Inc. built its position in the Barnett Shale of Texas Tuesday by announcing it paid $550 million to acquire 24,000 net acres from several undisclosed parties. Initially the properties, with estimated proved reserves of more than 200 Bcfe, will add about 25 MMcfe/d to XTO’s production base, but company engineers have identified another 300-350 drilling locations, which offer the potential to more than double the holdings’ reserves.

To build its presence in the U.S. natural gas markets, Japan’s Itochu Corp. last week paid $155 million to acquire Range Resources Inc.’s gas-rich assets located in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Itochu, which is Japan’s fourth-largest trading company, plans to invest about $170 million (Y20 billion) this year and up to $850 million (Y100 billion) over the next three years to expand its U.S. gas business.