Prize

The natural gas industry will miss out on the prize of shale if it can’t convince the public that development is safe, a Chevron Corp. executive told a Pittsburgh audience Thursday.

The natural gas industry will miss out on the prize of shale if it can’t convince the public that development is safe, a Chevron Corp. executive told a Pittsburgh audience last Thursday.

Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu were sworn in Wednesday at the White House as secretaries of the departments of Interior and Energy, respectively.

President-elect Barack Obama has picked Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, who runs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, to be secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) in his administration, and has selected experienced regulators to oversee three other offices dealing with energy, environmental and climate-change issues, Washington sources said. No formal announcement had been issued Thursday morning.

Foiled bidders, led by an American producer, for a package of prize natural gas assets have learned the hard way that — in Canada’s top supplier province, at least – energy free trade does not erase inherited responsibilities to consumers. Burlington Resources Canada Energy Ltd., NCE Petrofund Corp. and NCE Energy Corp. got the lesson from the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board.

After a week of offers, acceptances and counter-offers, Southern Union and Oneok are now waiting to see who is awarded the prize of merging with Southwest Gas. Both companies said they have reached the maximum they can offer. The only winners so far, according to a source close to the situation, have been Southwest Gas’ shareholders, who have seen the price for their shares vault from an original $28.50/share to $33.50/share.

Energy guru and Pulitzer-prize winning author Daniel Yergin toldFederal Energy Regulatory Commission staffers there will still be aplace for the agency in the next millennium despite the fact themarketplace is taking “The Commanding Heights” away fromgovernments.