Transition

The board of directors of Range Resources Corp. has approved several management changes in preparation for the transition of CEO John Pinkerton to the role of executive chairman on Jan. 1. Current COO Jeff Ventura previously was named the new CEO. In addition, the board has promoted Ray Walker to senior vice president and COO. Walker is to oversee all of Range’s operations and would continue to lead the company’s environmental, safety, regulatory and best practices programs. Alan Farquharson has been promoted to senior vice president of reservoir engineering and economics. Farquharson is to oversee the corporate reservoir engineering as well as the long-range planning function. Ralph Tijerina has been promoted to vice president of safety and environmental. Mark Whitley, promoted to senior vice president of the Northern Appalachia and Southwest Division, is to continue to oversee operations of the Marcellus Shale along with Range activities in Texas and New Mexico.

Aging pipeline infrastructure will need to be replaced and/or expanded to support the nation’s transition to greater reliance on natural gas, particularly in electric generation, FERC Commissioner John Norris said last Tuesday.

Aging pipeline infrastructure will need to be replaced and/or upgraded to support the nation’s transition to heavier reliance on natural gas, FERC Commissioner John Norris said Tuesday.

Removing a moratorium on new drilling in Pennsylvania state forests is not a priority, the acting secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) told a state Senate committee during confirmation hearings earlier this month.

With the transition to more seasonal springtime conditions continuing to displace the winter-like weather that lingered through much of March in several areas, prices fell at a large majority of points Thursday. The previous day’s further drop of 8.5 cents by May futures, extending a string of screen weakness into its fourth day, put more downward pressure on cash numbers.

The transition to spring may have officially occurred Sunday, and sources indicated that many people were enjoying the appropriate weather. But there seems to be some trouble getting Old Man Winter off the seasonal stage, as a significant winter storm bearing snow starts moving westward from the Plains into the Midwest as early as Tuesday. From there colder conditions will continue spreading through the Northeast and eventually the South.

“Shaley” natural gas producers and Bakken oil explorers should be reporting “lots” of reserves additions as they roll out their year-end 2010 reports, the research team at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said Friday.

With shipper contracts expiring in 2015, Alliance Pipeline Ltd. plans to develop receipt and short-haul services that take advantage of the pipeline’s location near developing gas shale plays in British Columbia and North Dakota, Alliance said. The new offerings will complement the pipeline’s “bullet line” service from Western Canada to Chicago, as well as provide hub services such as the Natural Gas Exchange and the Alliance Chicago Exchange project.

The quick transition this year to the cooling season from the heating season is likely to provide only temporary support for higher natural gas prices because of the “relatively robust” inventory builds toward the end of the heating season, noted Credit Suisse energy analysts in a report issued late Monday.