World

There are familiar names, matched to familiar brands, on the latest compilation of the world’s wealthiest individuals. At No. 1 is Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu, 73, whose net worth of $73 billion was made from the telecommunications industry. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 57, with $67 billion is in second place, followed by Spain’s Amancio Ortega, 77, with $57 billion. Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett, 82, has $53.5 billion for the No. 4 position, while Oracle Inc.’s Larry Ellison, 68, rounds out the top five with an estimated net worth of $43 billion.

More announcements continued to move last week for building the compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) market for natural gas vehicles (NGV).

Peter Voser, who has led the transformation of Royal Dutch Shell plc from an also-ran in the energy industry into Europe’s leading producer and the world’s largest integrated natural gas operator, announced his surprise retirement last Thursday.

Peter Voser, who has led the transformation of Royal Dutch Shell plc from an also-ran in the energy industry into Europe’s leading producer and the world’s largest integrated natural gas operator, announced his surprise retirement on Thursday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is looking for a new secretary to lead the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), but in a strange twist the outgoing secretary, Michael Krancer, is reportedly on a short list of names to replace a state Supreme Court justice who resigned Monday after being convicted on corruption charges.

The pecking order of liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers to Japan, the world’s largest importer of LNG, has shifted. For the first time, Australia has surpassed Qatar to take the No. 1 slot, according to EnergyQuest, a consultancy based in Australia.

North American oil and natural gas producers are in the “middle to latter stages of the land grab” for unconventional properties, but there still will be opportunities down the road for others to pitch a claim, said Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc.’s (TPH) Bobby Tudor.

Audi AG held a topping-out ceremony recently for a new plant in Germany that will be the world’s first manufacturing facility for producing synthetic methane, or “e-gas,” along with renewable electricity. The facility is scheduled to begin operations early in 2013 and begin feeding e-gas into the local natural gas distribution network by summer.

A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc has been given another six months to decide whether to purchase property in western Pennsylvania for a proposed “world scale” ethane cracker in the heart of the Marcellus Shale.