Industry News

Cimarex Energy Co. has entered into an agreement to sell certain non-core long-lived oil and gas properties in Texas. The properties are to be sold for USD$294 million.   The sale is anticipated to close before the end of 2012.

GE Oil & Gas senior executive Supply Chair, Paul Smith announced that company would be hiring over 200 production manufacturing positions and more than 30 salaried supply-chain positions, in order to grow and increase capacity in Houston, Texas.

Progress Energy Carolinas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, will officially retire two coal-fired power plants Oct.

Denbury Resources Inc. has entered into an agreement to sell its Bakken assets in North Dakota and Montana to Exxon Mobil Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary XTO Energy Inc.

GE Oil & Gas has signed a record deal of nearly $1.1B (USD) with Brazilian energy company Petrobras. This is the world's largest subsea wellhead production contract.

  Chevron Corporation has announced that its subsidiary, Chevron U.S.A. Inc., has agreed to acquire 246,000 net leasehold acres in the Delaware Basin in New Mexico, a part of the Permian Basin, from Chesapeake Energy Corporation.

The Carlyle Group L.P. And Sunoco Inc. have completed the formation of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions joint venture that will operate the Philadelphia Refinery, which has a processing capacity of 330,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has issued its Safety Evaluation Report with open items for the license renewal application for the 908 MW Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, OH. The four open items are: management of shield building cracks during the period of extended operation, operating experience review prior to entering the period of extended operation, time-limited aging analysis of reactor vessel neutron embrittlement and pressure-temperature limits. The results show that plant owner FirstEnergy Nuclear Operation Co.

Xcel Energy said operators returned the 600 MW Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant near Monticello, Minn., and the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Unit 1, to full power August 20 after shutting them down the week prior. The Monticello plant was returned to full power after workers repaired a gasket on a pipe flange.

The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago announced a deepwater competitive bid round for six offshore blocks in the East Coast Marine Area and Trinidad and Tobago Deep Atlantic Area earlier this year.