Role

Transocean Ltd.’s agreement to plead guilty for its role in the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico has been accepted by a federal court in New Orleans. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, which was destroyed in the well blowout, killing 11 men. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo accepted the agreed-upon settlement reached in January with the Department of Justice, in which Transocean pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to pay $400 million in criminal penalties. Transocean also has agreed to pay $1 billion in civil penalties, which is to be decided in a different court.

Baker Hughes Inc. Chairman Chad Deaton said he is retiring effective April 25. President and CEO Martin Craighead is to assume the chairman’s role in addition to his current responsibilities, the board announced. Deaton joined the oilfield services company in 2004 and served as chair and CEO until January 2012, when he became executive chairman (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25, 2012). Craighead, who began working at Baker in 1986, was appointed COO in 2009 and president in 2010. “I am confident that with Martin, Baker Hughes has the optimal leadership for the future,” Deaton said. The Houston-based company works in 80 countries and has more than 58,000 employees worldwide.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead spent little time discussing energy issues in his state-of-the-state speech Wednesday, but he did call out coal’s role in the resource-rich state, which has substantial natural gas and coal supplies.

The Marcellus Shale is a “solidly economic” shale play that could play a big role in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States to Europe and Asia, but regulatory hurdles, stiff competition and market forces are all significant obstacles, according to two energy industry experts.

The Marcellus Shale is a “solidly economic” shale play that could play a big role in the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to Europe and Asia, but regulatory hurdles, stiff competition and market forces are all significant obstacles, according to two energy industry experts.

The election may have left the balance of power in Washington basically unchanged, but the lame duck Congress, which convened this week, may turn out to be not so lame, and the outlook for natural gas interests on Capitol Hill is good, according to Regina Hopper, CEO of America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA).

It was only a matter of time before Democrats called for a hearing to explore what role, if any, extreme weather events and climate change played in the Frankenstorm that slammed into the northeastern coast this week when Hurricane Sandy teamed with a cold front from the West to create a superstorm.

The extent of the risks associated with development of shale oil and natural gas is “unknown” because existing studies have not taken into account the potential long-term, cumulative effects of the activity, according to a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Tuesday. The agency in a companion report did not make any recommendations to change environmental and public health requirements in light of advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Oil and natural gas companies looking to drill within regulated interstate river basins need to familiarize themselves with issues facing the local river basin commission and take those issues seriously before ultimately deciding whether to drill, an industry attorney said.