Energy Sector Roundup: Crude oil settles lower

Natural Gas Supplies Grow

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural-gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 93 billion cubic feet to about 1.53 trillion cubic feet for the week ended May 9.

The inventory level was slightly above the five-year average, but well below last year's storage level of about 1.82 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

Natural gas for June delivery fell 19.9 cents to settle at $11.399 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Pickens Puts Billions into Wind Power

Mesa Power, a renewable energy company founded by billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, placed an order for 667 wind turbines from General Electric Co. as part of a $2 billion startup of what is slated to become the world's largest wind farm.

"You find an oilfield, it peaks and starts declining, and you've got to find another one to replace it," Pickens said in a statement. "With wind, there's no decline curve."

Mesa plans to install the turbines in the Texas Panhandle, a sparsely populated region that the company said is a "logical location" for wind-generated power. Electricity produced by the turbines is expected to come online by early 2011.

The entire four-phase project is forecast for completion in 2014. It will eventually have 4,000 megawatts of capacity.

The turbines can each produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity. That makes the project's first phase capable of producing a total of 1,000 megawatts, or enough energy to power more than 300,000 average U.S. homes, the company said.