Energy Biz Review: BP Disappoints Investors, Chevron’s Haunting Legal Battle

BP (NYSE:BP) downgrades the scope of its Nabucco pipeline project, which is to import natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, and now says that the pipeline will only reach so far as Europe’s border with Turkey. The strategic initiative had caught political backing from the European Union and the United States, for the reduction of Russian dominance over European gas supplies.

Investing Insights: A.M. Radar: BlackRock Ups CHK Stake, VeriFone’s Stock a Victim.

El Paso Pipeline Partners (NYSE:EPB) shares react positively to Standard & Poor’s upgrade of the company’s credit rating to Investment Grade, from BBB to BB- BB-. EPB’s growing size and diversity of assets were credited for the improvement, along with expectations that Kinder Morgan will manage it more as a stand-alone master limited partnership.

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDSA) will commence drilling test wells in July, off the coast of northern Alaska, which will inaugurate a ‘new frontier’ in domestic oil exploration. Sierra Club’s Michael Brune is not happy with the news, says that, “We never expected a Democratic president… to open up the Arctic Ocean for drilling”. Consumers being gouged with gasoline prices might have something to do with that…

Chevron (NYSE:CVX) needs to resolve its 20-year legal battle against the indigenous people in the Ecuadorian rainforest, says a group of shareholders led by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Problem is, that an Ecudorian court awarded damages for the alleged dumping of oil waste at $18 billion, and CVX says that the case is rife with fraud.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) has received a 7.56 percent investment by Carl Icahn, according to13D filings. The activist investor explained that, “If you continue to arbitrarily refuse the request we have made for shareholder representation, we, as activists, will immediately take whatever ‘actions’ we feel are necessary to protect the value of this company.”.

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