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NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil
Dell’Osso takes over as Chesapeake CEO
US CHESAPEAKE Energy announced this week bankruptcy protection, Chesapeake announced
that its board had voted unanimously to appoint that it would pivot back towards natural gas
Domenic Dell’Osso as the company’s president after trying to focus more on oil in recent years
and CEO. In an October 11 statement, Chesa- – an ill-timed attempt that coincided with crude
peake said Dell’Osso’s appointment was effective prices falling.
immediately. Despite a new commitment to restrained
Dell’Osso replaces Chesapeake’s interim spending, Chesapeake announced in August that
CEO, Mike Wichterich, who will now assume it had agreed to buy Haynesville shale producer
the role of executive chairman of the board of Vine Energy in a cash and stock deal valued at
directors. Wichterich stepped in after former around $2.2bn.
CEO Doug Lawler left the company in April. Reuters reported in late September that
In the subsequent months, a number of Ches- Dell’Osso was poised to take over as CEO, so the
apeake executives, including its general counsel, appointment comes as no surprise. In a state-
executive vice president of exploration and pro- ment, Dell’Osso said he looked forward to work-
duction and chief accountant, also departed the ing to “generate and return to our shareholders
company. sustainable free cash flow while aggressively low-
It has been a turbulent time for Chesapeake ering our emissions profile”.
in other ways too. The company emerged from According to Reuters, Dell’Osso is one of
bankruptcy protection in February after fail- the few long-tenured executives to remain after
ing to stay afloat during the worst of last year’s Lawler’s departure. He previously worked as an
industry downturn. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy investment banker with Jefferies & Co., joining
reorganisation process allowed it to shed around Chesapeake in 2008. He was appointed chief
$7.7bn worth of debt. Upon emergence from financial officer in 2010.
ENERGY TRANSITION
TC Energy partners with
Nikola on hydrogen hubs
NORTH AMERICA CANADIAN pipeline operator TC Energy has for the transportation of carbon dioxide (CO2)
partnered with electric vehicle (EV) manufac- to sequestration sites.
turer Nikola to build “large-scale” hydrogen “We believe this announcement reinforces
production facilities in the US and Canada. the long-term value of [TC Energy’s] pipeline
The companies intend for the fuel to be used infrastructure and steel in the ground with its
to operate Nikola’s Class 8 fuel cell electric vehi- ability to repurpose and support the energy tran-
cles (FCEVs). They also hope that the hubs will sition, especially in the current difficult regula-
TC Energy’s pipeline, help to accelerate the adoption of heavy-duty tory environment of building new pipelines,” a
storage and power zero-emission FCEVs and hydrogen across BMO Capital Markets analyst, Ben Pham, com-
assets can potentially industrial sectors more broadly. mented in a note.
be leveraged for the Under the plan, the companies will establish Nikola and TC Energy said they were both
hydrogen hub project. hubs that produced a combined 150 tonnes per committed to reducing the carbon intensity of
day, or more, in locations near heavily used truck hydrogen through the use of renewable energy,
corridors. The hubs would be established within as well as low-cost natural gas, renewable natural
the next five years. gas (RNG) and biomass feedstocks paired with
The companies noted that TC Energy owns carbon capture and storage (CCS). The compa-
an extensive network of pipeline, storage and nies added that they would take a “technology
power assets that can potentially be leveraged agnostic” approach to finding the best pathway
to lower the cost of these hydrogen production to hydrogen production for each region where
hubs and increase the speed of delivery. They they build a hub. They will aim to achieve the
said this could include the integration of mid- lowest possible carbon intensity at each site and
stream assets to enable hydrogen distribution or ultimately bring it down to net zero over time.
P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 41 14•October•2021
