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Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders last week gave a thumb’s up to CEO Aubrey McClendon’s latest joint shale exploration agreement with CNOOC Ltd. (China National Offshore Oil Corp.), and the Chinese producer, like other foreign investors, appears to have found a successful way to invest in U.S. energy with a minimum of federal oversight.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. shareholders gave a thumb’s up to CEO Aubrey McClendon’s latest joint shale exploration agreement with CNOOC Ltd. (China National Offshore Oil Corp.), and the Chinese producer, like other foreign investors, appears to have found a way to invest in U.S. energy with a minimum of federal oversight.

Questar Corp.’s board of directors last week gave a thumb’s up to proceed with a tax-free spin-off of the firm’s exploration and production (E&P) and midstream field services businesses to form an independent, publicly traded company to be named QEP Resources Inc.

Petroleo Brasilerio (Petrobras) was given a thumb’s up by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) last week to develop the first floating production storage offloading (FPSO) facility in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The FPSO, to be located in the Cascade-Chinook area in the Walker Ridge area of the Lower Tertiary trend, would be built about 165 miles offshore Louisiana in 8,200 feet of water.

Petroleo Brasilerio (Petrobras) Tuesday was given a thumb’s up by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to develop the first floating production storage offloading (FPSO) facility in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The FPSO, to be located in the Cascade-Chinook area in the Walker Ridge area of the Lower Tertiary trend, would be built about 165 miles offshore Louisiana in 8,200 feet of water.

New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) and South Jersey Gas (SJG) got a thumb’s up from the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Thursday to begin a three-year pilot that decouples utility distribution revenues from system throughput. The measure is intended to remove the disincentive to the utilities to promote conservation by consumers. Going forward, utility profits will be tied to the number of customers served thus allowing the companies to focus on encouraging conservation and energy efficiency among customers. Interest in such programs, known as “revenue decoupling,” has grown as high gas prices have spurred increased conservation by consumers, reducing throughputs and, hence, reducing distribution revenues when they are calculated on a volumetric basis (see Daily GPI, June 14).

The threat of after-the-fact rules, prosecutions and penalties has become so great that the rule-of-thumb on many trading floors is, “If you can make money at it, don’t do it,” industry witnesses told a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference on standards of conduct and market behavior rules for the natural gas and electric markets in Chicago Friday.

It is a trader’s rule of thumb not to go home for a long holidayweekend with a large long or short position because of thepotential for fundamental or political forces to produce a severeprice move when the market reopens. Yesterday’s energy complex wasa textbook example of this rule.