One of Weatherford International’s largest investors is attempting to unseat three members from the troubled oil-field service company’s seven-member board of directors. New York investment management firm and activist investor D.E. Shaw Group, which holds Weatherford’s bonds and 3.5 percent of the company’s shares, said Monday it will try to remove Weatherford board Chairman Thomas Bates …
June 2020 archive
Energy news in brief
** A suburban Omaha county passes new zoning regulations that could complicate or possibly undo a utility’s plans for a major solar project and gas plant to serve the city. ** Attorneys for Enbridge and the Michigan attorney general argue in court over whether a 2018 law paving the way for a pipeline tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac was constitutional. …
US House Dems unveil climate-friendly transportation bill but Republicans cry foul
While the nation wrestled with protests that turned violent over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, politics as usual was underway in the nation’s capitol and it focused on—climate change. Democrats on the House Transportation Committee released their $494 billion, five-year surface transportation bill on Wednesday, prompting scorn from their Republican colleagues who say they …
Stallion Oil field services opens new rental division
While it’s struggling like other oil and gas providers, Houston’s Stallion, a company with field offices in El Reno and Elk City, Oklahoma announced intentions to expand its business with StallionRents. The new division will be something of a man-camp provider in the oilfields and other sites. StallionRents will provide large construction, plant maintenance, …
Hedge fund’s land purchases worry Colorado ranchers
Moves by a New York hedge fund to buy irrigated farm and ranch land in Colorado are raising concerns among those who already worry about protecting their water sources. The recent growing purchases by Water Asset Management even has the attention of Colorado legislators who have proposed a bill looking at strengthening the state’s anti-water-speculation …
Regulators come out against federal net metering plan
Some regulators across the U.S. are coming out in opposition to a federal plan for net-metering, a proposal affecting solar and wind power users who can be charged by utilities. One of those regulators is the head of the Arkansas Public Service Commission, Ted Thomas. He feels the federal “one plan fits all” proposal is …
New Mexico environmentalists boast of political wins over “Big Oil”
Environmentalists are celebrating election wins in six New Mexico Senate districts, saying they prevailed over candidates favored and heavily supported by the oil and gas industry. In a commentary entitled “Grassroots candidates beat Big Oil,” the Sierra Club claimed that people across New Mexico not only continued to “confront the systemic racism plaguing the country,” …
County-owned solar array is activated in Fayetteville
The largest county-owned solar array in Arkansas has started operating in south Fayetteville. The North Little Rock-based Seal Solar company put the 2.01-megawatt array into activation on Wednesday. The array is located on the roof of Washington County’s south campus in Fayetteville according to a report by Talk Business and Politics. The 5,400-panel system …
Nine Energy regains compliance with NY Stock Exchange
Threatened with delisting from the New York Stock Exchange, Houston-based Nine Energy Service, Inc. has regained compliance with the exchange’s continued listing standards. The company announced Thursday it had been notified April 21 of noncompliance because its average closing price of shares of common stock had fallen below $1 a share over a period of …
Black Stone Minerals sells minerals and holdings in Permian Basin
Houston’s Black Stone Minerals, L.P. is selling some of its Permian Basin holdings in a $155 million deal that is intended to reduce company debt and obligations. The sale involves two separate agreements. One involves holdings in Midland County, Texas and the buyer is only identified as a “private buyer” who paid approximately $55 …