NRG acquires, SEC investigates, CVR considers sale
NRG continues consolidation
NRG Energy said Monday it would pay $300 million in cash to buy the retail power and natural gas business of the Dallas company Stream Energy, continuing the consolidation in the Texas retail power market. The acquisition is the latest of several by the state’s biggest power sellers, a trend that some analysts worry could reduce competition and lead to higher prices. The top three retail power companies — NRG, of Houston and Princeton, N.J., Vistra Energy of Irving and Direct Energy, a unit of the British company Centrica — hold at least two-thirds of the state’s deregulated power market.
SEC investigates Alta Mesa
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the Houston oil and gas company Alta Mesa Resources for potential fraud amid admitted failures in its financial reporting, the company said Friday in a regulatory filing. The one-year-old company was already struggling to survive following a $3.1 billion write-down of its assets attributed to undisclosed flaws in its financial accounting. Alta Mesa said in the filing that it is considering a potential bankruptcy in the months ahead as it deals with defaults on loan agreements and delisting warnings from the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Tough penalties for pipeline protesters
Oil pipeline protesters who interrupt operations or damage equipment could face up to 10 years in prison under legislation approved by Texas lawmakers. Under a bill approved by both chambers of the state legislature, protesters found guilty of halting service or delaying construction of an oil or natural gas pipeline could be charged with a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years of incarceration. That’s on a par with the sentences meted out to drive-by shooters who fail to hit their mark.
CVR considers sale, other alternatives
Seven years after billionaire investor Carl Icahn bought a controlling interest of CVR Energy, the Sugar Land refiner said it is considering selling itself or other strategic alternatives. CVR said it has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to act as its financial adviser in evaluating a potential sale. There is no definitive timeline for completing the evaluation, which may not result in a transaction or sale, the company said. CVR also said that it sold its 1.5 million barrel Cushing, Okla. crude oil terminal to an affiliate of Houston-based Plains All America Pipeline for $36 million.
Guyana probes offshore leases
Guyana’s anti-corruption agency is investigating how exploration rights were awarded in the world’s biggest new deepwater oil region, including those now controlled by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Tullow Oil. The probe is broad in scope and is at an early “investigatory stage,” Clive Thomas, director of the the State Assets Recovery Agency, said last week. The Stabroek, Kaieteur and Canje blocks, all operated by Exxon, will be part of the inquiry, as well as Orinduik operated by Tullow, he said.
Shell’s Appomattox begins production
Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday it has begun production at its massive new Appomattox platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico a few months ahead of schedule. The Appomattox — the only major platform coming online this year in the Gulf — is expected to produce 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from its position about 80 miles southeast of the Louisiana coastline. It’s the first largescale production tapping into a Gulf formation known as the Norphlet.