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The Indiana Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear a case involving a 30-year contract for the state to purchase coal-to-substitute natural gas (SNG) from a proposed $2.8 billion gasification plant in southwestern Indiana.

Denver-based exploration and production (E&P) independent QEP Resources Inc. reported encouraging results from its first four-well pad drilling on recently acquired South Antelope property in the Williston Basin in North Dakota. QEP said it also completed nine wells — four in the Bakken and five in the Three Forks formations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) officials said Southern California power supplies will be adequate through the summer, and as many as three new or upgraded natural gas-fired plants with a total of more than 1,800 MW are scheduled to begin operations by the end of September.

Jeff Shellebarger, 56, will take over as president of Chevron Corp. subsidiary Chevron North America Exploration and Production Co. on Aug. 1. Gary Luquette has helmed the unit since 2006, but he is retiring after 35 years. To help with the transition, Luquette plans to remain at Chevron until Sept. 1. Shellebarger joined Chevron in 1980 and now manages the IndoAsia business unit. As president of North America operations, Shellebarger would oversee exploration and production activity across all of the producer’s assets in the United States and Canada.

BP plc’s Alaska presence will become more visible over the next five years as the oil major pours an additional $1 billion into natural gas and oil development on the North Slope with a to-do list that includes more drilling rigs and more workers.

Jeff Shellebarger, 56, will take over as president of Chevron Corp. subsidiary Chevron North America Exploration and Production Co. on Aug. 1. Gary Luquette has helmed the unit since 2006, but he is retiring after 35 years. To help with the transition, Luquette plans to remain at Chevron until Sept. 1. Shellebarger joined Chevron in 1980 and now manages the IndoAsia business unit. As president of North America operations, Shellebarger would oversee exploration and production activity across all of the producer’s assets in the United States and Canada.

A group of elected officials, economic development and real estate experts in northeastern Ohio have developed a proposal to create a network of wet gas gathering lines and other infrastructure in the Utica Shale, using the region’s steel industry, abandoned or partially used rail lines and existing highways.

BP plc’s Alaska presence will become more visible over the next five years as the oil major pours an additional $1 billion into natural gas and oil development on the North Slope with a to-do list that includes adding more drilling rigs and more workers, the operator said Monday.

James J. Kleckner has been promoted to executive vice president of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s international and deepwater operations and will join the executive committee, replacing Doug Lawler, who is to become CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp. (see Daily GPI, May 21). Kleckner has been running Anadarko’s Rockies division, and the promotion “is a reflection of his global operational skills,” as well as his “instrumental role in the phenomenal growth of the Wattenberg field in Colorado and the Greater Natural Buttes area in Utah,” said CEO Al Walker. Kleckner, a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines, began his career in 1981 with Sun Oil Co. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute.