EagleClaw Midstream Services LLC has acquired natural gas gathering and processing assets in Reeves County, TX, including more than 50 miles of gathering pipeline, a Joule-Thomson (JT) processing plant with capacity of 15 MMcf/d, a 60 MMcf/d cryogenic processing plant and seven 1,700 hp compressors. The assets form EagleClaw’s East Toyah gathering and processing system, which serves producers targeting stacked pay zones in the liquids-rich Delaware Basin, including the Upper and Middle Wolfcamp, Bone Spring and Avalon Shale formations. The cryogenic processing plant is expected to enter service in the second half of 2015. The East Toyah site is large enough to accommodate multiple expansions of processing capacity. EagleClaw also recently commissioned its Northwest Toyah gathering and processing system. Also located in Reeves County and serving production from the Delaware Basin, the North Toyah system includes more than 30 miles of pipeline and a 15 MMcf/d refrigerated JT plant. EagleClaw’s two anchor customers are Silverback Exploration LLC and Elevation Resources LLC.

The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) staff has been directed to explore the potential need for increased emphasis on well inspections in highly populated urban areas throughout the state. “In current times, we are looking at a state in which drilling does not necessarily occur in less populated, rural areas, as it once did years ago,” said RRC Chairman Christi Craddick said. “Because of both production and population growth across this state, our communities are more commonly touched by the development of oil and gas. We have heard the concerns expressed by those living in urban areas where drilling is occurring. Perhaps most notably, residents of Barnett Shale town Denton recently voted to ban hydraulic fracturing, a ban the RRC opposes (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5;Nov. 5). Texans living in the midst of shale drilling have also complained of earthquakes, thought to be related to drilling waste injection wells (see Shale Daily, Oct. 28; June 18).