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Natural gas will account for nearly half of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s total output within three years, CEO Peter Voser told a Washington, DC, audience earlier this month.

Natural gas will account for nearly half of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s total output within three years, CEO Peter Voser said last week.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is set to announce “substantial” job cuts in the coming days, sources told NGI Friday.

BP plc has chosen a new chairman whose expertise is in technology — as opposed to someone schooled in oil and natural gas — to take the helm when Peter Sutherland steps down at the end of this year. Carl-Henric Svanberg, now chairman and CEO of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, will join the BP board as chairman-designate and become a nonexecutive director on Sept. 1. He officially will step down at year-end from Ericsson and succeed Sutherland as chairman of BP on Jan. 1. Based in London, Svanberg, 57, is expected to devote most of his time to BP business. “Following such a distinguished predecessor is quite a challenge but I’m hugely excited about joining the energy industry, which is so much at the heart of the global economy. I look forward to it with relish,” Svanberg said. Sutherland, 63, has been chairman of BP since 1997. He was scheduled to step down in April, but earlier this year he agreed to remain in his post because of the difficult market conditions that had delayed the search for a replacement. BP CEO Tony Hayward said Sutherland “will be a hard act to follow. But I am sure Carl-Henric will be a worthy successor. He is a businessman of international stature who is recognized for his transformation of Ericsson. Our shared views on many aspects of global business give me great confidence that we will work very effectively together on the next phase of BP’s progress.”

Pacific Gas and Electric Corp. (PG&E) CEO Peter Darbee said San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plans to invest heavily in renewable energy projects, in part because of the increasing financing barriers independent renewable developers face.

Pulling energy professional resources provider Skipping Stone out from under the Commerce Energy umbrella, Skipping Stone President Greg Lander and founder Peter Weigand have partnered to acquire the company for an undisclosed sum. Founded by Weigand in 1996, Skipping Stone will continue to focus on the energy industry. The partners are expanding the company’s existing consulting service offerings to add interim management and contract resources, as well as executive search services. “We are pleased with the transaction and believe it results in Skipping Stone being better positioned to serve its clients by returning to its original focus of providing clients with seasoned energy industry veterans to help develop and evaluate strategic alternatives, pursue opportunities and solve problems,” said Lander. The purchase included all of the assets, intellectual property, client contracts and the operational and consulting personnel. Included in the assets is Capacity Center, www.capacitycenter.com, a wholly owned subsidiary that provides interstate gas pipeline capacity release transactions and other capacity and operational information to physical and financial trading companies and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Skipping Stone’s headquarters are in Boston with additional locations in Chicago, Houston, Tampa and Orange County, CA. The company has more than 200 clients worldwide in the natural gas, electricity, renewable energy, software and clean energy technology markets.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) is feeling the pressure from high natural gas wholesale prices and consumers will have to pay, parent company CEO Peter Darbee told financial analysts last Wednesday during a quarterly earnings conference call.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) is feeling the pressure from high natural gas wholesale prices and consumers will have to pay, parent company CEO Peter Darbee told financial analysts Wednesday during a quarterly earnings conference call.

PG&E Corp. CEO Peter Darbee has assumed the CEO/president duties for utility subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co., effective upon approval by the California Public Utilities Commission. The move was necessitated by the departure of William Morrow, who told the company he was leaving to reenter the international technology and telecommunications sector. PG&E Corp. said John Keenan will remain as COO at the utility, responsible for day-to-day operations. Darbee called Morrow “an executive of exceptional talent sand abilities,” and thanked him for his contributions to the utility’s pursuit of a vision of being “the leading utility in the United States.” C. Lee Cox, PG&E lead director and the chairman of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said the expansion Darbee’s of his duties recognizes that the company’s current focus is “built around optimizing the financial and operational performance of our core utility unit.”