Solar securitization, which we’ve recently covered, appears to be moving forward with an announcement last week that SolarCity plans to sell $54 million in asset-backed securities. The concept is similar to now-famous mortgage-backed securities that precipitated the global financial crisis, but proponents claim they are less risky. [The Atlantic] California cities are getting into biogas,… Keep reading →
Neat and messy, conservative and spendthrift, no we’re not talking about Felix and Oscar, but former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond and former Chesapeake Chairman and CEO Aubrey McClendon, who have teamed up to run a shale gas venture focused on Ohio’s Utica Shale. “It may be the U.S. energy industry’s oddest couple: Lee Raymond, who… Keep reading →
Law suits, countersuits, bribes, corruption and private investigators are all part of the battle between Chevron and lawyer Steve Donziger over Ecuadorian jungle contamination that dates back decades. Donziger currently faces a major suit brought by the oil giant. “As I take the long view, it’s Chevron that faces the risk, not Steven Donziger.” [New… Keep reading →
After turning down a purchase offer from a large company for a majority stake in more than 100,000 prospective Utica shale acres, upstream master limited partnership EV Energy Partners (EVEP) is finding that many of the buyers in the market have more of an appetite for smaller deals.
EVEP has been marketing 103,800 acres in the Ohio portion of the Utica shale spanning black oil, light oil, wet gas and dry gas zones. But the company recently turned down an offer from a large prospective buyer, citing unacceptable deal terms. Keep reading →
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
A reported plan by New York State government to allow natural gas drilling in a handful of counties may represent an effective lifting of the state’s moratorium on fracking but increases the chances that energy companies will run into local opposition, analysts said. Keep reading →
A new midstream service complex in Ohio is the subject of a recent deal that underpins a wider resurgence activity in the industrial sector driven by shale gas discoveries across the country, but particularly in the states underlying the Utica and Marcellus Shales.
An unexpected but common theme at the Wall Street Green Summit going on this week in New York is how unconventional natural gas development is strengthening the US manufacturing sector. Keep reading →
In what may be the nation’s next boomtown, the ground is, literally, booming. Residents here in northeastern Ohio are receiving up to $5,000 an acre from energy companies that lease their land — plus monthly royalties. But they have also experienced at least 11 earthquakes since last March, state officials say. Scientists say the region’s quakes are likely tied to the burgeoning oil and gas industry. At 3:05 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, the people of Youngstown, Ohio, felt their homes shake. “I thought a jetliner crashed into the side of my house,” said resident Jim Bunosky. He was one of 300 to 400 local residents who attended a community meeting last week to discuss the quake’s origin, which some believe is linked to a local well used for wastewater disposal from oil and gas drilling.
