Someone

Got ethane? Not to worry; someone will want it — now and in the future — according to analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. While the firm expects ethane prices to remain depressed through 1H2012, a rebound is coming in the second half of the year, and longer term the outlook is bullish for ethane demand.

Got ethane? Not to worry; someone will want it — now and in the future — according to analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. While the firm expects ethane prices to remain depressed through 1H2012, a rebound is coming in the second half of the year, and longer term the outlook is bullish for ethane demand.

Laflin, PA-based coal company Silverbrook Anthracite has leased approximately 1,635 acres for Marcellus Shale gas exploration in Lackawanna County, PA, to a Texas land services firm in what county officials are calling the largest such lease ever recorded in the northeastern Pennsylvania county.

BP plc has chosen a new chairman whose expertise is in technology — as opposed to someone schooled in oil and natural gas — to take the helm when Peter Sutherland steps down at the end of this year. Carl-Henric Svanberg, now chairman and CEO of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, will join the BP board as chairman-designate and become a nonexecutive director on Sept. 1. He officially will step down at year-end from Ericsson and succeed Sutherland as chairman of BP on Jan. 1. Based in London, Svanberg, 57, is expected to devote most of his time to BP business. “Following such a distinguished predecessor is quite a challenge but I’m hugely excited about joining the energy industry, which is so much at the heart of the global economy. I look forward to it with relish,” Svanberg said. Sutherland, 63, has been chairman of BP since 1997. He was scheduled to step down in April, but earlier this year he agreed to remain in his post because of the difficult market conditions that had delayed the search for a replacement. BP CEO Tony Hayward said Sutherland “will be a hard act to follow. But I am sure Carl-Henric will be a worthy successor. He is a businessman of international stature who is recognized for his transformation of Ericsson. Our shared views on many aspects of global business give me great confidence that we will work very effectively together on the next phase of BP’s progress.”

BP plc has chosen a new chairman whose expertise is in technology — as opposed to someone schooled in oil and natural gas — to take the helm when Peter Sutherland steps down, the London-based energy giant said Thursday.

It’s not everyday that someone suggests adding Peruvian LNG to your gas supply portfolio, but that’s what Dallas-based Hunt Oil may soon be recommending to some West Coast buyers. By 2009, the company and its partners, Spain’s Repsol and Korea’s SK Corp., hope to be bringing 4.4 million metric tons of LNG per year to the U.S. and Mexican west coasts from a liquefaction plant in Pampa Melchorita, Peru.

Reaching outside the industry for someone with experience with troubled companies, Calpine Corp.’s board Monday named Robert P. May as the company’s new CEO and a member of the power plant operator’s board. May, 56, replaces Kenneth Derr, Calpine’s lead director and acting CEO for the past two weeks following the dismissal of the company’s founder/CEO and chief financial officer.

Just in case someone hadn’t gotten the message, Ohio Gov. Robert Taft has issued an executive order, good through the end of his term in office in 2006, prohibiting the issuance of state permits to drill for oil and gas in Lake Erie.

If you’ve gotten the feeling that someone is watching you, you’re not paranoid. The spotlight is on natural gas prices and the lights are only going to get brighter.