Venerable

The venerable Permian Basin in West Texas is in the “early innings” of an oil/gas renaissance that promises to be technology driven, riding the wave of horizontal drilling, which still represents only a quarter of Permian rig activity, according to a report released Monday by Houston-based financial services company U.S. Capital Advisors.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered more certainty to parties contracting in wholesale energy markets when it ruled in an 8-1 decision that the venerable Mobile-Sierra doctrine does in fact apply to noncontracting third parties as well as contracting entities. The ruling means third-party challengers to contracts would have to meet the higher “public interest” standard of Mobile-Sierra rather than a merely “just and reasonable” hurdle.

Now that IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) has made its move for the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), traders in energy and plenty of other commodities are waiting to see how the rivalry for the venerable CBOT will play out between Internet-age upstart ICE and the more august Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). The latest merger news is yet more evidence of consolidation and globalization among the commodity exchanges.

Further heralding the ascendancy of national oil companies on the world exploration and production stage (see NGI, Dec. 12, 2005), venerable U.S. oilfield services giant Halliburton Co. is moving its headquarters yet again — to Dubai.

Arthur L. Smith, CEO of the venerable energy research firm John S. Herold Inc., offered a prayer for the new year to oil and gas executives meeting in Houston last week: “Lord,” he pleaded, “let 2003 be boring.”

Arthur L. Smith, CEO of the venerable energy research firm John S. Herold Inc., offered a prayer for the new year to oil and gas executives meeting in Houston this week: “Lord,” he pleaded, “let 2003 be boring.”

Struggling with a well of problems in the past few months, the once venerable Duke Energy’s quarterly earnings plunged 71% from a year ago. Huge merchant energy losses, problems in California, the deferral of several large generation projects and mounting severance costs all played a part in the losses. But Duke disclosed more bad news last week, revealing that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a formal investigation in mid-October of its round-trip energy trades. The SEC’s stepped up scrutiny joins two inquiries already under way by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and a Houston grand jury, which subpoenaed Duke last summer (see NGI, July 15).

The recent Oscar winners have nothing on San Francisco’svenerable Gran Dame of combination energy utilities, Pacific Gasand Electric Co., whose film career and notoriety seem destined towin increasing Hollywood scrutiny if not gold statuettes.

Sunday’s Oscar winners have nothing on San Francisco’s venerableGran Dame of combination energy utilities, Pacific Gas and ElectricCo., whose film career and notoriety seem destined to winincreasing Hollywood scrutiny if not gold statuettes.