Platform

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), a major energy trading platform, Thursday said it welcomed the opportunity to participate in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) upcoming hearings on position limits in energy trading markets, noting it has been an area of concern for some time. Independent oil and natural gas producers, however, were less receptive, warning that dramatic changes by the CFTC affecting their hedging activities could cripple development.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is borrowing a page from eBay to test an online platform that could replace the traditional oral auctions for oil and natural gas lease sales.

Regency Energy Partners LP, which serves as a platform for GE Energy Financial Services’ growth in the midstream sector, has slashed its 2009 and 2010 growth plans and sharply reduced its planned pipeline infrastructure project for the emerging Haynesville Shale.

Regency Energy Partners LP, which serves as a platform for GE Energy Financial Services’ growth in the midstream sector, on Monday slashed its 2009 and 2010 growth plans and sharply reduced its planned pipeline infrastructure project for the emerging Haynesville Shale.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is underwriting www.Shale.tv, an on-line video channel that will “provide a platform for in-depth information, discussion and analyses about the Barnett Shale and other shale natural gas plays in the U.S.,” according to the website. Despite Chesapeake’s role, the site’s creators “hope to provide thorough, accurate and independent information about the complex issues and opportunities of developing natural gas domestically.” The television-style programming on Shale.tv will be led by managing editor Tracy Rowlett, who was previously a news anchor at KTVT-TV in Dallas. Chesapeake has promised not to meddle in the project, and journalists set to work on the site’s three hours of new programming each day have been promised editorial independence, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. Last year Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and Chesapeake founded the American Clean Skies Foundation and put former Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chair Denise Bode in charge (see Daily GPI, July 19, 2007). Earlier this year the organization published the first issue of its magazine and unveiled Clean Skies TV, an Internet-based television channel (see Daily GPI, April 11). Earlier this month Chesapeake sold its interests in 90,000 net acres of leasehold and natural gas properties in the Arkoma Basin of the Woodford Shale to BP America Inc. for $1.75 billion, enabling it to redeploy capital to its Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus shale plays and improve its capital structure (see Daily GPI, July 18).

Tennessee said it will have to shut in the 526A-100 Line as soon as possible in order to replace a valve on the Scofield platform near Port Sulphur, LA. Equipment and personnel are anticipated to arrive at the site Wednesday, and Tennessee is estimating that it will take five days for repair completion. Physical flow will be suspended at 32 meters from Wednesday through Aug. 1, Tennessee said. Travel time for work boats and crew mobilizations prompted the pipeline to add a few extra shut-in days for contingency purposes, a spokesman said.

Just one year after announcing its support of the ConfirmHub standard — the energy and environmental industry initiative to provide a central, standardized platform for transaction confirmation delivery — Nymex Holdings Inc., the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc., has joined interdealer brokers GFI, ICAP Energy and Tullett Prebon as a 25% stakeholder in ConfirmHub LLC, it said Tuesday.

Just one year after announcing its support of the ConfirmHub standard — the energy and environmental industry initiative to provide a central, standardized platform for transaction confirmation delivery — Nymex Holdings Inc., the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc., has joined interdealer brokers GFI, ICAP Energy and Tullett Prebon as a 25% stakeholder in ConfirmHub LLC, it said Tuesday.

Electronic energy and agricultural trading platform IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) was off-line last Thursday — as was its website — for approximately three hours following an “emergency power outage,” according to the Atlanta-based commodity exchange.