Change of leadership: Darren Olagues, president and CEO of Cleo Corporate Holdings and Cleco Power, has resigned, the Pineville-based utility announced this morning. Olagues stepped down on Wednesday, effective immediately. According to the release, Cleco’s board expects to spend up to 12 months to find Olague’s successor. In the meantime, board chair Peggy Scott of Baton Rouge will assume the role of Cleco Corporate Holdings’ interim CEO. Scott recently retired as the executive vice president, chief operating officer, chief financial officer/treasurer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. Bill Fontenot, Cleco’s chief operating officer, has been appointed interim CEO of Cleco Power. Both appointments are effective immediately.
Rolling along: Production at ExxonMobil, PBF Energy, Phillips 66 and Motiva refineries in southeast Louisiana were unaffected by severe weather on Tuesday that spawned tornadoes, the companies and Gulf Coast market sources tell Reuters. Operations at refineries run by ExxonMobil Corp in Baton Rouge, PBF Energy in Chalmette, and Phillips 66 in Alliance were not affected by the severe weather, company representatives say. Motiva Enterprises’ Convent and Norco refineries in Louisiana continued planned operations despite the storms, a company spokeswoman says. Exxon’s 502,500-barrel-per-day Baton Rouge refinery is the second largest in Louisiana and the company’s second largest U.S. refinery. Read the full story.
On the rise: U.S. coal production is expected to rise this year as higher natural gas prices drive up the demand for coal, FuelFix.com reports. The U.S. Department of Energy says coal production is expected to rise over the next two years primarily in the western coal-producing region and to remain relatively flat in the Appalachian region, where the cost of production is higher. While coal production has decreased in all of the major coal-producing regions of the U.S., some areas were harder hit than others in 2016. Production declined the least in the Western region, which includes the prolific Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana; there, production has fallen 36% since 2008. But the tables could turn again in 2018, when more natural gas-fired power plants are expected to come online and possibly decrease the demand for coal yet again. Read the full story.
