Energy Roundup: Yucca Mountain's Demise, BG Sweetens Bid, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Obama rejects Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project -- President Obama's budget released this week removes almost all funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage project, effectively killing a plan 20 years in the making. The administration will focus on a new strategy of how to handle waste, and the only funds spent on Yucca Mountain will be used to meet a legal requirement for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to process a Bush-era application. [Source: Bloomberg]

BG sweetens its own bid for Pure energy -- BG Group upped its cash bid for Pure Energy this week even though the U.K-based company already had the highest offer. The bidding war for Pure Energy began earlier this month when BG announced its A$8 per share cash offer and has been complicated by Arrow Energy - the other company vying for the Australian coal seam producer - which already owns 20 percent in Pure. [Source: WSJ]

GE jumps into pipeline, deepwater oil and gas projects -- GE Energy will finance two separate oil and gas projects including a $150 million investment in a partnership with Houston-based ATP Oil to own and operate a floating oil and gas production unit in the Gulf of Mexico. GE also announced it will invest $126.5 million into a joint venture with Alinda Capital and Regency Energy to finance the construction of the Haynesville Shale pipeline project. [Source: Dallas Business Journal, Upstream]

Chesapeake cuts West Virgina operations -- Chesapeake Energy is cutting the majority of its staff at its West Virginia office, a decision the natural gas producer blamed on a decline in natural gas prices and a multimillion verdict in a royalties case. Chesapeake will cut 215 jobs in Charleston and the remaining handful of employees will be transferred to the company's corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City. [Source: Charlotte Gazette]