Structure

Quicksilver Resources Inc., which was one of the early entrants into the Horn River Basin of British Columbia (BC), has launched plans to create a midstream natural gas entity to support its 130,000 net-acre project.

Marking a U-turn of sorts in the company’s exploration and production strategy due to low natural gas prices and a premium on liquids prices, Range Resources Corp. in its 3Q2010 earnings call put its Barnett Shale properties in Texas on the block and announced that it plans to focus on its “liquids-rich plays” in the Marcellus Shale.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) plans to streamline the organizational structure that reports to EIA Administrator Richard Newell down to four areas from the current eight. The reorganization takes effect Oct. 1. The four areas, each to be headed by an assistant administrator, will be Energy Statistics, Energy Analysis, Communications and Resource and Technology Management.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is contemplating how to structure a possible partnership for its South Texas conventional natural gas leasehold, which, instead of selling an outright stake in the assets, as has been the company’s recent modus operandi, it instead may use a volumetric production payment (VPP) transaction, giving the buyer some oil and natural gas output in exchange for cash.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is contemplating how to structure a possible partnership for its South Texas conventional natural gas leasehold, the company’s CFO said Friday. Instead of selling an outright stake in the assets, as has been Chesapeake’s recent modus operandi, it instead may use a volumetric production payment (VPP) transaction, which would give the buyer some oil and natural gas output in exchange for cash.

After dancing for two months over the details and the structure of the deal, CME Group Inc. has agreed to acquire Nymex Holdings for $9.5 billion, which is approximately $1.5 billion less than the deal that was being pondered back in late January. The companies said the combined company will provide global market participants access to the “leading financial and agricultural exchange” and the “leading energy and metals exchange” in a regulated, transparent marketplace distributed around the world through the “enhanced speed and capacity” of the CME Globex electronic platform.

After dancing for two months over the details and the structure of the deal, CME Group Inc. has agreed to acquire Nymex Holdings for $9.5 billion, which is approximately $1.5 billion less than the deal that was being pondered back in late January. The companies said the combined company will provide global market participants access to the “leading financial and agricultural exchange” and the “leading energy and metals exchange” in a regulated, transparent marketplace distributed around the world through the enhanced speed and capacity of the CME Globex electronic platform.

Prepaid gas supply deals are back bigger than ever among municipal utilities and the joint action agencies that structure the transactions on their behalf. With gas prices as high as they are, it pays to pay in advance to get a discount.

Duke Energy on Friday named a new executive team for its electric business and outlined what it said was a more centralized organizational structure. Duke filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month to spin off its natural gas unit (see Daily GPI, Sept. 8).