Troubled

BP plc CEO Tony Hayward, who was tapped last year to lead the troubled UK-based major, called 2007 a year “which most of us will be glad to leave behind.” He said BP’s final quarter’s profits were “very disappointing,” but BP is making “good, step-by-step progress” to ramp up new oil and natural gas fields and trim excess overhead.

BP plc CEO Tony Hayward, who was tapped last year to lead the troubled UK-based major, said Tuesday that 2007 was a year “which most of us will be glad to leave behind.” He called the final quarter’s profits “very disappointing,” but he said BP is making “good, step-by-step progress” to ramp up new oil and natural gas fields and trim excess overhead.

Uniting in an effort to transform the nation’s troubled electric power system, the GridWise Alliance announced last week in Washington, DC, that 10 additional have joined its effort. The new members are Accenture, Austin Energy, CenterPoint Energy, Cisco, ClickSoftware, Duke Energy, Enporion, Itron, RuggedCom and SAP.

The U.S. is entering “an era when mergers are going to be more difficult again” and will “only be easy in places where there’s a very troubled utility,” Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe said last Thursday in remarks made at the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. strategic decisions conference in New York City.

Reaching outside the industry for someone with experience with troubled companies, Calpine Corp.’s board Monday named Robert P. May as the company’s new CEO and a member of the power plant operator’s board. May, 56, replaces Kenneth Derr, Calpine’s lead director and acting CEO for the past two weeks following the dismissal of the company’s founder/CEO and chief financial officer.

A Texas bankruptcy court judge approved the restructuring plan of power producer Mirant Corp. late Thursday, setting the stage for the troubled company to emerge from bankruptcy within a couple of weeks.

A unit of Williams announced last Monday an agreement to discontinue the development of the troubled Georgia Strait Crossing pipeline project to serve power generators on Vancouver Island in Canada.

A unit of Williams announced Monday an agreement to discontinue the development of the troubled Georgia Strait Crossing pipeline project to serve power generators on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Despite the fact that rising domestic natural gas production costs and increased well decline rates will team to put pressure on commodity prices this summer, Energy Security Analysis (ESAI) said Monday that it expects liquefied natural gas (LNG) will offset some of that pressure with another year of strong imports.