Rapid

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. has named John Benton vice president and general manager of the energy holding company’s oil and gas production unit, Black Hills Exploration & Production. Benton is replacing John Vering, a Black Hills board member who has served as interim CEO of the E&P unit and will return to his board position. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering from Colorado School of Mines, Benton comes to Black Hills from Rex Energy Corp., where he headed development of the company’s Niobrara acreage in Wyoming and Colorado.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power utility said it has filed with the Wyoming Public Service Commission to recover natural gas and electric infrastructure costs with its first general rate increase request since 2008. The company seeks annual increases of $2.6 million, or 6.7%, for gas utility customers and $5.9 million, or 5.9%, for power consumers. The combination utility also is seeking a 10.9% authorized return on equity and a 54-46% equity-to-debt ratio as part of the rate request to be effective April 1 next year. Residential customers using both electricity and gas would face a combined average monthly utility bill increase of close to $10 ($5.14/month for gas and $4.33/month for electricity). Cheyenne Light serves 34,600 gas customers and 39,600 electric customers.

Although emphasizing its utility assets more in recent years, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. has found new life in its oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) unit with the advent of the Mancos shale play in the Piceance and San Juan basins, CEO Dave Emery recently told an energy financial audience in Orlando, FL.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s two utility subsidiaries have filed with Wyoming regulators for authorization to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Cheyenne that would include both a peaking and combined-cycle baseload unit. Black Hills Power and Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power asked the Wyoming Public Service Commission (PSC) for permission to build the $237 million complex to provide 37 MW of simple-cycle peaking capacity and a separate 95 MW of combined-cycle capacity. Cheyenne Light would own and operate the peaking unit, and the two utilities would jointly own and operate the baseload facility with Black Hills Power owning the majority (55 MW).

The current Congress is a do-nothing legislative body, while the Department of Energy (DOE) has stepped up its approval of applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) in response to the rapid development of shale natural gas in the United States, federal energy officials said Monday.

Natural gas and electric utilities drove results in the second quarter for Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. but: Despite flat results in the second quarter when its utilities drove increased profits, CEO Dave Emery last week talked up the company’s early stage horizontal drilling in the San Juan and Piceance basins.

Despite flat results in the second quarter when its utilities drove increased profits, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. CEO Dave Emery talked up the company’s early stage horizontal drilling in the San Juan and Piceance basins.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp.’s Wyoming combination utility proposed Monday to build and operate a $158 million natural gas-fired electric generation peaking facility in the city of Cheyenne. In a filing to the state Public Service Commission (PSC), Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power proposed the development of three 40 MW simple-cycle peaking units. If approved by the PSC, the utility plans to begin construction in 2013 and have the facility operable by 2014. Located within close proximity to existing power lines, the proposed plant would provide added tax benefits and electric reliability for customers, according to the utility. Mark Stege, vice president for operations, called the proposal the “right investment” to serve increasing electric demand in the area and maintain “reliability that customers expect from our company.”

Having been part of the shale natural gas supply revolution, Chesapeake Energy Corp. wants to “kick-start the demand revolution,” CEO Aubrey McClendon said Monday when the company announced a $1 billion venture capital fund — Chesapeake NG Ventures Corp. (CNGV) — to invest in companies and technologies to enable replacement of gasoline and diesel fuel with natural gas and gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuels.