November Newsreel: Gazprom launches business in North America; Quanta acquires Price Gregory and more

Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA has acquired physical gas supplies from counterparties at designated pipeline hubs across North America by executing a number of innovative, long-term gas swap transactions that have allowed it to quickly gain a substantial physical gas supply position in North America. 

“These gas swaps have given us a strong supply foundation to build our marketing and trading operations,” said John Hattenberger, President of Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA. “We have already signed deals giving us more than 350 MMcf/d of physical supplies at several different locations all across the U.S., for the next three to seven years. Our goal now is to grow from that position rapidly and expand into all major North American markets.”

Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA will also market LNG exported to North America by its Gazprom Group affiliates. In May the company signed long-term agreements enabling it to buy LNG from the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant, off Russia’s Pacific coast, regasify the LNG in a facility in Baja California, Mexico, transport it by pipeline to southern California, and sell natural gas into southwestern U.S. markets.

Quanta Finalizes Price Gregory Acquisition; Forms New Natural Gas And Pipeline Division
Quanta Services, Inc. closed on its acquisition of Price Gregory Services Incorporated, a leading transmission pipeline infrastructure service provider. Quanta issued 10.9 million shares of Quanta common stock and paid $96 million in cash to stockholders of Price Gregory Services.

Quanta has formed a new division called the Natural Gas and Pipeline Division and appointed Earl C. "Duke" Austin, Jr. president and Paul M. Daily executive vice president. Price Gregory Services will become part of this new division and J. Thomas White will serve as president with responsibility for its transmission pipeline operations and facility services.

Austin most recently served as president of North Houston Pole Line (NHPL), a Quanta Services company and one of the largest infrastructure contractors in the Southwest.

In addition to his new position, Daily will continue as president of InfraSource Underground Services, LLC, a Quanta Services company.

White previously served as president of Price Gregory International.

Bayou Companies Acquiring Garneau Assets In Canada
The Bayou Companies Inc., a subsidiary of Insituform Technologies, Inc. will acquire Garneau’s pipe-coating and insulation facility and associated assets located in Camrose, Alberta Canada. Bayou Perma-Pipe Canada, Ltd., a joint venture between Bayou and Perma-Pipe, Inc., will acquire the Garneau facility and assets and serve as the operating company for Bayou’s Canadian operation.

“This acquisition represents another strategic step for Insituform’s energy and mining division. A pipe-coating and insulation facility in Western Canada will allow Bayou to better serve its customers and will increase Bayou’s addressable market by $200 million,” said Jerry Shea, Bayou’s Managing Director, Business Development.

Henry Linden, World-Renowned Energy Expert, Dies At 87
Henry Linden, a longtime figure in the natural gas industry, died Sept. 13 in Chicago. He was 87. Linden was a faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology since 1954.