FERC approves, Big Oil sells, power costs jump
LNG projects approved
Federal officials approved permits for three new liquefied natural gas export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley and the expansion of another in Corpus Christi. The agency cleared the way for Rio Grande LNG, Annova LNG and Texas LNG to build their projects at the Port of Brownsville and Cheniere Energy to expand at its export complex at the Port of Corpus Christi. The three Brownsville projects represent more than $38 billion of private investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs in one of the poorest regions of the United States.
ConocoPhillips to boost buybacks
ConocoPhillips said Tuesday it will spend $50 billion over the next 10 years to buy back shares and pay dividends to woo investors and separate itself from other companies in the struggling energy sector. The Houston firm, the largest independent oil and gas company, said it planned to generate $50 billion in free cash from its operations and keep its capital spending below $7 billion a year over the next decade. The plan includes selling a 25 percent stake in its large Alaska business in order to save money.
Price spikes reach households
Electricity contracts for residential customers in Texas are getting more expensive as spikes in wholesale power prices during the extended stretch of triple-digit temperatures this summer filter down to the retail level. Residential consumers who have renewed their fixed-rate electricity plans over the past three months are paying at least 20 percent more than than they did a year ago for the energy portion of their bill, according to comparison shopping websites and retail electric providers tracking prices.
Big Oil sells assets
Big oil companies aim to unload about $27 billion in oil and gas assets worldwide to cut costs and focus spending on their core projects as the industry retrenches in the face of lackluster oil prices and concerns about weakening oil demand, according to a new report for Rystad. This is all part of a broader trend of financial discipline in the energy sector to promote shareholder confidence and woo Wall Street back to the oil and gas sector.