Wash

As people in the Gulf Coast were “watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach,” President Obama — speaking in Louisiana on Friday about efforts to tame and contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history — promised that “justice will be done for those whose lives have been upended by this disaster.”

As people in the Gulf Coast were “watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach,” President Obama — speaking in Louisiana last Friday about efforts to tame and contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history — promised that “justice will be done for those whose lives have been upended by this disaster.”

Chesapeake Energy Corp., long one of the most active natural gas drillers and producers in North America, is stealthily making a land grab to secure domestic oilfields, part of a long-range plan to rebalance a portfolio that now is 93% weighted to gas, CEO Aubrey McClendon said last week.

Devon Energy Corp. has acquired a 44% stake in Chevron Corp.’s leasehold in the Drunkard’s Wash coalbed methane natural gas field in east-central Utah. The field, which has about 51,000 net acres, is being developed jointly by Chevron, ConocoPhillips and XTO Energy Corp.; current net output is 40 MMcfe/d. For the stake, Devon transferred back to Chevron around 14.2 million shares of Chevron common stock, which it has held since acquiring PennzEnergy in 1999 (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19, 1999). In exchange, Devon received a stake in the field and $280 million in cash from Chevron. In August Devon retired exchangeable debentures issued by PennzEnergy that were associated with the Chevron shares, which enabled Devon to make the exchange transaction.

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

A half-decade of litigation over reserves revisions, allegations of wash trading and charges of market manipulation against El Paso Corp. drew closer to closure Tuesday when a federal judge in Houston gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement and set a final hearing date in the class action suit against the company.

After trading within one of its smallest ranges in months, February natural gas futures on Tuesday basically called the day a wash, settling 2.4 cents lower at $9.336. Trading flip-flopped from gains to losses for a majority of the session while remaining within a tight 27-cent range from $9.280 to $9.550.

Newport Generation Inc. yesterday said it plans to build a 1,300 MW power plant in Rathdrum, ID, 32 miles northeast of Spokane, Wash.