The Cheney Observer
Exelon and PSEG to join forces
20-12-04 Exelon is acquiring Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) in a $ 12 bn stock deal that would create the nation's largest power generation company with customers in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50321.htm
Halliburton to cut jobs and reduce employee benefits
17-12-04 US oilfield service company Halliburton is cutting jobs and reducing employee benefits at its subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root.
The cutbacks come as KBR admitted in a letter to staff that it had lost "several major bids" in the Europe/Africa region worth more than $ 1 bn in the past two years and that "competitors are significantly outperforming KBR".
However, KBR could face legal problems in its efforts to cut costs at its UK division, which employs 3,000 people.
KBR has told them that, if they decline to accept new employment contracts, they will have their employment terminated but will not be entitled to redundancy payments.
Source: Neftegaz.RU
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50329.htm
Oil market's volatility could mean lost revenue when hedging the wrong way
by Lisa Sanders
18-12-04 While lofty crude oil prices handed oil companies their best year ever, oil executives should take a moments to thank those who frosted their cake in December -- the speculators.
With fund managers constantly on the prowl for lucrative plays, this fall investors and hapless consumers saw clear evidence that these managers pounced on commodities, spurring frenzy in the trading pits of New York and London.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50325.htm
ChevronTexaco announces 2005 capital spending program
19-12-04 ChevronTexaco announced a $ 10 bn capital and exploratory (C&E) spending program for 2005, which includes $ 1.8 bn for the company's share of affiliate expenditures. While actual 2004 C&E expenditures will not be known until year-end, they are estimated to be in the range of the 2004 budgeted amount of $ 8.5 bn.
"Our capital program continues to target our strategies to focus on high-return upstream growth projects, to commercialise our company's large natural gas resource base and to enhance the financial returns in our downstream business. These are the right strategies at the right time and continue to yield very strong results," said ChevronTexaco Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50323.htm
Energy firms donate to President Bush's inauguration fund
18-12-04 More than $ 4.5 mm from the corporate world has flowed to President Bush's inauguration fund, much of it from the energy industry and some of its executives in contributions of $ 250,000 each.
Outside the energy sector, New Orleans Saints football team owner Tom Benson gave $ 50,000 and his companies gave $ 200,000, the fund reported. Northrop Grumman, the world's largest shipbuilder and second-largest US defence contractor, donated $ 100,000.
Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world's largest personal computer maker, gave $ 250,000. So did United Technologies, maker products ranging from escalators to aircraft engines.
Investment banking firm Stephens Group of Little Rock, Arkansas, gave $ 250,000. And the education loan firm Sallie Mae gave $ 250,000. Occidental Petroleum, whose business stands to benefit from the president's actions concerning Libya, donated $ 250,000, as did ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company. ExxonMobil reported record third-quarter profits, thanks to higher prices for oil and natural gas.
In April, Bush took steps to restore normal trade and investment ties with Libya, enabling four American oil companies, including Occidental, to resume commercial activities there after an 18-year absence. Bush's action was a reward to Muammar Gaddafi for eliminating his most destructive weapons programs.
Other donors from the energy sector included Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who gave $ 250,000; and former Enron President Richard Kinder, who left the firm five years before it collapsed and now is CEO of one of the largest energy transportation and storage companies in the country. Kinder also gave $ 250,000.
Energy provider Southern Co., which owns utility companies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, gave $ 250,000.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the nuclear industry, gave $ 100,000.
Source: Associated Press
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50327.htm
Duke Energy to invest $ 1 bn in gas infrastructure
17-12-04 Duke Energy plans to invest about $ 1 bn over several years to expand its natural gas pipeline system and storage capacity.
Duke expects to spend $ 350 mm to $ 400 mm annually to expand in the area, keeping pace with growing US demand for LNG.
Charlotte-based Duke is a diversified energy company.
Source: Charlotte Business Journal
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50330.htm
Rocky Mountains may hold 800 bn cf of raw gas
by Patrick Brethour and Dave Ebner
17-12-04 For decades, what lies beneath the limestone shelf deep below the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains has been a mystery to energy companies, left to guess what kind of energy riches might be trapped underneath in the ancient coral. The sound waves used to map oil and natural-gas reservoirs simply could not make their way through the folds of the mountain range and the limestone.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50331.htm
Global LNG sector poised for accelerated expansion
16-12-04 The LNG industry is poised to enter a period of accelerated expansion driven by "steadily increasing" global gas demand, high market prices and falling units costs of production and delivery, Moody's Investors Service said in an Industry Outlook report.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50332.htm
ConocoPhillips announces exploration and development plan
11-12-04 ConocoPhillips plans to spend about $ 700 mm in Alaska next year on exploration and production activity. Executives with the Houston-based energy firm said the planned spending is part of a $ 6.9 bn global capital budget.
The company also will commit $ 1.4 bn for exploration and production in the North Sea and West Africa; $ 900 mm for the Asia Pacific region; $ 900 mm for the Lower 48 and Latin America; $ 700 mm for Canada; and $ 400 mm for Russia and the Caspian Sea region.
The Alaska money will go toward drilling four North Slope exploratory wells this winter, plus work to possibly develop oil from "satellite" oil accumulations near the Alpine oil field. The company also plans to continue a major project to boost production of so-called heavy oil from the North Slope's massive but technically difficult West Sak field.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50336.htm
ConocoPhillips and Anadarko approve development of Alpine satellites
20-12-04 ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum announced that the companies have approved the development of two Alpine satellite oil fields on Alaska's North Slope. The project was sanctioned following recent favourable Record of Decision rulings from the Bureau of Land Management and the Corps of Engineers on the Alpine Satellites Environmental Impact Statement.
The project will include two satellite drill sites -- CD 3 on the Fiord oil field, and CD 4 on the Nanuq oil field. Both will be located within an 8-mile radius from the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine oil field on the border of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50322.htm
Chesapeake Energy to drill up to 50 gas wells in Texas
06-12-04 Oklahoma City-based natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy will pay Hallwood Energy of Cleburne $ 277 mm for 18,000 acres of leases and 42 wells in the Barnett Shale in northern Johnson County.
Chesapeake, which in the last four quarters has reported $ 2.2 bn in revenue and $ 376 mm in net income, said it plans to devote three rigs full time to drill 45 to 50 wells in Johnson County next year. Total spending in Johnson County is expected to amount to $ 100 mm next year.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45114.htm
Heavy explosion at chemical plant in Texas
04-12-04 An explosion at a chemical plant that could be heard 20 miles away caused a large fire and sent up massive clouds of smoke. No casualties were reported.
Several tanks and a building were on fire at the Marcus Oil & Chemical plant, but officials did not know what caused the explosion or what was in the tanks, said Tommy Dowdy, a district chief with the Houston Fire Department. Streets were closed off around the plant, but there were no evacuations. Dowdy said the three people on duty at the plant were not near the explosion.
Lenny Ogle, manager of a gas station half a mile away, said the explosion shot flames about 75 feet in the air. Houston Fire Department District Chief Phil Boriskie said a hazardous materials team was conducting an evaluation. He said there were no reports of chemical exposure.
According to reports, Marcus Oil & Chemical, owned by privately held HRD Corporation, makes polyethylene waxes.
Source: Suni System
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45115.htm
Kerr-McGee to acquire BP’s stake in Gulf of Mexico discovery
30-11-04 Houston-based Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas plans to acquire BP's 37.5 % working interest in the Blind Faith discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in exchange for Kerr-McGee's interests in various oil and gas assets in the Arkoma basin of Southeast Oklahoma.
The exchange, which includes extra cash compensation from Kerr-McGee, a unit of Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2005.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45119.htm
ChevronTexaco to build six hydrogen fuelling stations
by David R. Baker
24-11-04 In a corporate parking lot in Chino, ChevronTexaco is building what looks like a gas station. It isn't, at least not quite. When finished in February, the small structure under a swooping canopy in the San Bernardino County town will dispense hydrogen for fuelling experimental cars.
ChevronTexaco, the United States' second-largest oil company, has started exploring hydrogen, the energy source some environmentalists hope will one day replace oil.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn44904.htm
Our Common Cause: Money for aid, not war
March 20 marks the second anniversary of the start of the criminal war on Iraq. Today, Iraq lies in ruins; its own people have become prisoners of war and terror. The war and occupation has brought neither freedom nor democracy. The elections have done nothing to change this.
Already more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, almost as many as perished in the recent tsunami disaster. Iraq's infrastructure has been devastated and its environment polluted for thousands of years through the use of depleted uranium weapons.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/618/618p7b.htm
More leaks
Sunday, March 6, 2005
The latest bad news from the Big Dig is that inspectors have identified 20 cases of damaged fire-proofing material and six more leaky concrete panels. Even before it is completed, the nation's most expensive construction project is cementing its reputation as the most wasteful and inept.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=92374
Botched Sgrena Hit Does Not Bode Well for Bush and Berlusconi
Kurt Nimmo
March 06, 2005
Newspapers across the United States are publishing and posting the same story by Frances D’Emilio on the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena and the murder of Nicola Calipari. The story is entitled “Story of Italian Hostage’s Release Unclear” and it is divided between the “circumstances” surrounding Sgrena’s release and the “friendly fire incident” that killed Calipari and wounded Sgrena. D’Emilio, however, left out a few important facts, as noted by Lew Rockwell < http://blog.lewrockwell.com/ >:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10165&l=i&size=1&hd=0
