Shareholders

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Friday was given federal approval to acquire “up to 50%” of Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s common shares. In the filing to FERC initially in July, Berkshire noted that it already owns 18.72% of the outstanding shares of Oxy, as it is commonly known (No. EC22-87-000). The purchases would be completed…

Gulfport Energy Corp. on Monday said it has cut 13% of its workforce and suspended a share repurchase program as part of ongoing efforts to boost shareholder value.

Encana Corp.’s combination with Newfield Exploration Co. to create a North American onshore exploration beast is set to be completed on Wednesday following approval by the companies’ shareholders.

Rice Energy co-founders Toby Rice and Derek Rice on Monday called for a “course correction” at EQT Corp., which they said is severely undervalued and in need of more executives with “proven operational experience” like themselves.

Output from the nation’s shale plays has ballooned domestic natural gas production over the past few years, but the industry, and the country, have yet to fully embrace all that the paradigm shift entails, said Rick Smead, a director in Navigant Consulting Inc.’s energy practice.

Despite disappointing earnings at Consol Energy Inc. during the first quarter, the company reported 10.7 Bcfe of production in the Marcellus Shale, a 60% increase that signaled that the play is becoming increasingly important for the coal and natural gas producer.

General Electric (GE) on Monday said it would pay $3.3 billion to buy Lufkin Industries Inc., a leading provider of artificial lift technologies for the oil and gas industry.

The Canadian government late Friday approved the C$15.1 billion takeover of Canada’s Nexen Inc. by CNOOC Ltd., an arm of state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Co.

Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy Inc. and Houston-based GenOn Energy Inc. said Friday that their respective shareholders have approved a proposed merger that has implications for the nation’s mix of natural gas- and coal-fired generation plants (see Daily GPI, Aug. 10). When completed, the NRG-GenOn combination would create the nation’s largest competitive electric generator with nearly 47,000 MW of capacity, spanning gas, coal, solar, nuclear and wind facilities. The merger still needs approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the New York Public Service Commission, among others. “An overwhelming shareholder vote” for the combination reflects the fact that the merger is a “win-win for everyone,” according to NRG CEO David Crane. GenOn CEO Edward Muller pointed to “substantial cost savings and efficiency benefits” from the merger.