Selling

Just days after a town in western New York adopted a one-year moratorium on oil and natural gas activities, the town’s only operator made a rare move and decided to shut down its wells and pipelines there, halting royalty payments and free natural gas to landowners.

Private hedge fund operator Third Point LLC, which is run by activist investor Daniel Loeb, listed Chesapeake Energy Corp. as one of the fund’s largest new holdings in a June exposure report to investors, according to several market followers.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Friday agreed to sell its midstream businesses to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in three separate transactions for more than $4 billion in cash. Chesapeake would net about $2.4 billion and cut previously budgeted midstream capital spending over the next three years by $3 billion.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) is selling two pipelines, gas processing and treating facilities, and its 50% share of Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) to win Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval of its buyout of El Paso Corp., the company said last Thursday. What at least some of the assets are worth depends upon what the buyer intends to do with them, one analyst said last week.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) is selling two pipelines, gas processing and treating facilities, and its 50% share of Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) to win Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval of its buyout of El Paso Corp., the company said Thursday.

American Honda Motor Co., which bills itself as the only automaker selling natural gas-powered passenger cars in the United States, wants to double its sales of its compressed natural gas (CNG) Civicmodel, which is built in Indiana. To boost sales it is going to establish CNG fueling stations in some of its dealerships, particularly in California. The automaker said it is negotiating with California regulators about developing more fueling stations in dealerships in a state that represents the nation’s biggest CNG vehicle market. The company said it is usually not Honda’s role to create infrastructure, but in this case a “chicken and egg” situation exists, “and we’re going to have to nurse the egg along.”

As another indicator of what sub-$3 natural gas prices can produce, MDU Resources Group Inc. will be selling some of its gas assets this year — albeit small ones — and raising its proportional amount of oil production from its exploration and production (E&P) mix in the Bakken, Niobrara, Heath, Big Horn Basin and other shale plays, senior executives told analysts during the company’s 4Q2011 earnings conference call.

As another indicator of what sub-$3 natural gas prices can produce, MDU Resources Group Inc. will be selling some of its gas assets this year — albeit small ones — and raising its proportional amount of oil production from its exploration and production (E&P) mix in the Bakken, Niobrara, Heath, Big Horn Basin and other shale plays, senior executives told analysts on the company’s 4Q2011 earnings conference call Thursday.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. said Wednesday it is selling energy marketing unit Enserco Energy Inc. to Houston-based Twin Eagle Resource Management LLC for $160-170 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of March.