http://www.law360.com/energy Latest articles for: Energy Copyright 2012 Portfolio Media, Inc. en-US Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:20:35 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311770 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311770 Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. filed suit Tuesday asking the judge handling its New York bankruptcy proceeding to block several lawsuits, including a dispute over a 2009 transfer of gas stations from Getty to then-sister company Lukoil North America LLC. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:10:28 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312304 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312304 A federal grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday indicted Manalapan Mining Co. for allegedly failing to maintain safety standards in a coal mine whose roof collapsed and killed a miner last year. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:02:10 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312061 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312061 A coalition of environmental groups launched a suit Tuesday in the Ninth Circuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its decision to allow Royal Dutch Shell PLC to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, challenging one of the first off-shore drilling permits to be issued after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:47:13 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312064 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312064 President Obama's tax reform proposal, unveiled Wednesday, will encourage investment in clean energy manufacturing, but its attempt to shift energy priorities by slashing billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil and gas companies is more likely to score political points than become law, experts said. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:29:43 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312235 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312235 U.S. agricultural commodities company Bunge Ltd. will buy London-based carbon fund manager Climate Change Capital Ltd., after the plan was approved by Britain's financial regulator earlier this week, Bunge said Wednesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:19:50 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312120 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312120 Baker Botts LLP's Washington, D.C., office has lured a former Kirkland & Ellis LLP partner with experience counseling energy companies on mergers and acquisitions, the company said Wednesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:56:11 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312279 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312279 Affiliates of French oil giant Total SA will pay $15 million to settle allegations in Texas federal court that they underpaid royalties owed on natural gas extracted from federal lands in violation of the False Claims Act, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:34:32 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311944 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311944 U.S. regulators have launched a formal probe into allegations that one of Cobalt International Energy Inc.’s oil drilling contractors bribed foreign officials in Angola, Cobalt said Tuesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:14:46 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312125 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312125 Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. and Atlantic Richfield Co. were hit with a personal injury suit Wednesday by a Pennsylvania woman claiming that toxic radioactive emissions from two nuclear materials processing facilities they operated gave her breast cancer. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:14:36 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312145 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312145 Spain's competition authority on Wednesday slapped Endesa SA, one of the country’s largest power utilities, with €23 million ($30 million) in fines for allegedly abusing its dominant market position in the electricity sector. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:16:01 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311930 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311930 A former executive for one-time Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR Inc. was sentenced Wednesday in Texas federal court to one year of unsupervised probation and a $20,000 fine for his part in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials for natural gas contracts. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:30:58 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311925 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311925 Hundreds of Virginia plaintiffs are taking a $2 billion swing at regional power company Dominion, which they accused in two lawsuits filed Tuesday of exposing them to toxic fly ash that was used as fill for a golf course built in the middle of their community. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:30:31 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312074 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312074 U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday accused two Puda Coal Inc. executives of looting their company and swindling investors by telling them they were investing in a Chinese coal business when they were actually investing in an empty shell company. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:59:13 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312002 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312002 Mitsubishi Corp. has reached a $280 million joint venture agreement with Canadian company Talisman Energy Inc. to develop nine natural gas projects in Papua New Guinea, Talisman said Wednesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:07:24 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312014 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/312014 Centrica PLC, parent company of British Gas, has agreed to acquire French oil company Total SA's oil and gas assets in the central North Sea for £246 million ($388 million) as part of its strategy to increase oil reserves and cash flow, Centrica announced Wednesday. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:04:28 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311971 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311971 The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled PPL Montana LLC doesn't have to pay some $49 million to Montana for operating hydroelectric plants on its riverbeds, unanimously rejecting a state court's ruling that rivers with waterfalls and other "interruptions" were navigable. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:54:01 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311980 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311980 Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:17:09 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311888 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311888 A New York state judge on Tuesday upheld the town of Dryden's ban on hydrofracturing, rejecting natural gas company Anschutz Exploration Corp.'s contention that the ban is preempted by state laws that prevent regulation of the oil and gas industry on a local level. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:50:46 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311784 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311784 Wells Fargo Bank NA has agreed to buy BNP Paribas SA's reserve-based energy lending business, which has about $9.5 billion in loan commitments and $3.9 billion in outstanding loans, the banks said Tuesday. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:12:44 +0000 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311553 http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/311553 Australian private equity firm Catalyst Investment Managers Pty Ltd. has purchased a roughly 40 percent stake in Bhagwan Marine Pty Ltd., providing the offshore oil and gas service provider with capital to expand its operations, the private equity firm said Tuesday.