Ties

From oil sands to coal ports to liquefied natural gas (LNG) engines, Wyoming’s energy ties to Canada are strong and should get stronger, Gov. Matt Mead said Friday, previewing a week long (June 12-19) trip north of the border to expand trade relations that now account for $2 billion annually.

A research team led by the University of Texas at Austin (UT) is collaborating with nine natural gas producers on a major field study to measure methane emissions at onshore gas well sites, about which only a handful of empirical data exist.

Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee put the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the hot seat last week because of his ties to the former chairman of MF Global Holdings Ltd., which collapsed in late October and took with it an estimated $1.2 billion in customer funds.

Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee put the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the hot seat because of his ties to the former chairman of MF Global Holdings Ltd., which collapsed in late October and took with it an estimated $1.2 billion in customer funds.

A cooperative and coordinated effort by state and federal agencies and the industry to develop and promulgate “best practices” is key to winning the public’s trust and to successful development of the nation’s shale gas resources, according to a report issued Thursday by a federal advisory panel.

Seattle-based R.W. Beck Group Inc. is to be acquired by McLean, VA-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), a $10.1 billion, 45,000-employee organization with ties to the U.S. departments of Defense, Homeland Security and intelligence agencies. R.W. Beck has clients in the public and private sectors, covering energy, water, wastewater and solid waste industries. SAIC said the deal includes acquiring Beck Disaster Recovery (BDR), an emergency management consulting businesses. R.W. Beck is the majority owner of BDR. R.W. Beck will join SAIC’s infrastructure, logistics and product solutions group led by Group President Joe Craver. It is one of four main segments of SAIC. The acquisition is expected to close at the beginning of August, subject to R.W. Beck shareholder approval and customary conditions.

Reflecting its strong business ties to Mexico, San Diego-based Sempra Energy Friday named Luis Tellez, a business and high-ranking national government leader in Mexico City, to its board of directors, expanding the board’s number to 11 directors. Tellez, 47, is managing director of the Carlyle Group private investment firm’s Mexico City office. Prior to joining Carlyle, Tellez was an executive vice president with one of Mexico’s largest companies, DESC, SA de CV, and held several senior positions in the Mexican federal government. Tellez served as Mexico’s Secretary of Energy from 1997 to 2000, during which he led the restructuring of the Mexican electricity industry. It was Tellez’s efforts that opened up more opportunities for private investment in Mexico’s power industry, something that Sempra and other U.S.-based companies rushed to take advantage of. Tellez also served as chief of staff to former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. With a bachelor’s degree from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, and an economics doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tellez has gained past interest in U.S. news media as a rising leader in Mexico.

Oilfield services giant Halliburton said Friday that it was terminating its relationship with A. Jack Stanley, a consultant and former chairman of its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), because of a bribery scandal involving work done at a Nigerian liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal. Another consultant and former employee of M.W. Kellogg Ltd., a joint venture in which KBR has a 55% interest, also is being terminated.

The federal government has known for several years that illegal aliens smuggling drugs have stowed away on Algerian-flagged liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers entering Boston Harbor, and had “some suspicion of possible associations” between the stowaways arriving in Boston and the terrorists indicted for their role in the so-called “Millennium Plot” to blow up Los Angeles International Airport and other U.S. sites, an official with the Department of Homeland Security said.