Tied

Once a high-flying global merchant power plant developer/operator tied to one of the top U.S. energy holding companies, Edison Mission Energy (EME) crash landed Monday with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Customer fuel-switching, growing gas-fired generation needs tied to more reliance on renewable power and pipeline infrastructure expansions in the western parts of the state have Wisconsin’s major combination utility anticipating a growing role for natural gas, according to the CEO of Wisconsin Energy (WE).

Noting it is one of the only proposed exporters not tied to domestic U.S. natural gas supplies, Oregon LNG has filed with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a permit to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to non free trade nations, saying that the proposed project at the mouth of the Columbia River will have very little, if any, impact on U.S. gas prices or the national supply-demand balance.

The permitting of horizontal natural gas wells in Ohio has grown more than eight-fold in one year; Chesapeake Energy Corp. became a major player in the Utica Shale, and Carroll County became the play’s “ground zero,” according to data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey K. McClendon over the past three years has taken out more than $1 billion in personal loans to finance his stakes in company wells and their operations, news that led some disapproving investors on Wednesday to head for the exit.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies are in the early stages of a “multi-year, double-digit growth spending upcycle” around the globe that is characterized by increased drilling in complex geologies on land, as well as deepwater development, according to a new survey by Barclays Capital analysts.

The federal government should leave shale regulation to the states, but companies should be ready for changes to the tax code that will likely impact their industry, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers told a Philadelphia audience last Wednesday.

In response to state and federal regulatory mandates tied to the natural gas pipeline rupture last year in San Bruno, CA, Sempra Energy’s California utilities have completed reviews and testing of their system in the southern half of the state, concluding that current operating pressures on pipes in highly populated areas are safe and appropriate, Sempra’s new CEO Debra Reed told financial analysts Tuesday during a second quarter earnings conference call.

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. announced Monday it has completed its $360 million Guadalajara Pipeline for the Mexican government tied to its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas-fired electric generation expansion. It is the Canada energy company’s second biggest investment in Mexico.