Touted

Notwithstanding a hedging strategy that fell victim to robust commodity prices, Chesapeake Energy Corp. executives Friday touted a “record quarter” on a per-share adjusted basis with earnings of $1.09/share, the most in the company’s 15-year history.

September natural gas futures rose a stout 11.8 cents to settle at $6.208 as traders touted the still hefty discount of natural gas to the petroleum complex and the idea that weather-driven higher prices would ultimately occur.

The former chief of Enron Corp.’s once-touted broadband unit and one of the defunct company’s top traders was sentenced last week to 27 months in federal prison. Kenneth Rice, the last of 15 ex-Enron executives who pleaded guilty to various crimes, also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit $13 million in cash and property to the government.

The former chief of Enron Corp.’s once-touted broadband unit and one of the defunct company’s top traders was sentenced Monday to 27 months in federal prison. Kenneth Rice, the last of 15 ex-Enron executives who pleaded guilty to various crimes, also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and forfeit $13 million in cash and property to the government.

The House Democratic leadership says it will introduce Friday its much-touted energy bill that is expected to focus on renewable and alternative energy, rather than traditional oil and natural gas.

An industry-touted method for revaporizing liquefied natural gas (LNG) aboard offshore terminal facilities “substantially increases the degree of impact on the marine environment,” particularly fish larvae and eggs, said federal marine officials in a draft “best practices” report, which was offered as guidance to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in analyzing LNG terminal applications.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy on Friday touted the development of six new technologies that it says will extend the production life of 650,000 stripper wells in the United States that deliver 15% of the nation’s domestic oil and 8% of its natural gas production.

The Sacramento Valley in California was touted Wednesday as an E&P hot spot by a Tucson, AZ-based Fidelis Energy Inc., which announced that its first exploration well tested at 12 MMcf/d from a 1,000-acre tract on the North Franklin Project. It taps the so-called Winters Formation, a new discovery on a ranch about 25 miles south of the state capital in Sacramento County.

The Calvert County, MD, Department of Economic Development touted the results of a new study Tuesday showing substantial economic benefits to the local and state economy from a planned expansion of Dominion’s Cove Point LNG terminal.