Goodrich Petroleum Corp., which is drilling in Texas’ Panola and Rusk counties, said the Billy Harris No. 1H, a horizontal well in a portion of the Haynesville Shale, produced into sales at a 24-hour peak production rate of 12.2 MMcf/d on a 24/64-inch choke with 6,000 pounds per square inch (psi) of pressure. The well, which Goodrich owns and operates, was drilled and completed with a 5,000-foot lateral and 20 hydraulic fracturing stages. A fourth horizontal well also was completed in Goodrich’s Cotton Valley/Taylor Sand holdings. The GT Waldrop 5H, which the company also owns and operates, is in “early stages of flow back,” and to date has a 24-hour peak production rate of 4.1 MMcf/d. The producer in 2009 completed its second operated well in East Texas, the Lutheran Church 5HR in Panola County, which had an initial production rate of 9 MMcf/d on a 26/64-inch choke with 4,375 psi (see NGI, June 8, 2009).

Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) said it will hear final arguments beginning April 12, on the Mackenzie Gas Project, a 760-mile pipeline and related facilities that would carry gas from northern Canada. Nine days in April have been allotted for hearings at two locations, Yellowknife and Inuvik in Northwest Territories. Each applicant or intervenor in the hearing process will have the chance to make its case for or against the project. Final arguments must be based on evidence that has already been presented to the NEB. Deliberation, a decision and explanation are to follow the hearings on the long-sought and frequently delayed project. Prior to the hearings, NEB will gather comments from project applicants and individuals who participated in either the NEB or Joint Review Panel’s (JRP) hearing process, on the recommendations from the recent JRP report, which recommended approval of the project with conditions (see NGI, Jan. 4). More information on the comment process is available on the NEB website. The NEB began hearing evidence in January 2006 on five applications filed by Imperial Oil Resources Ventures Ltd., Mackenzie Valley Aboriginal Pipeline LP, Imperial Oil Resources Ltd., ConocoPhillips Canada (North) Ltd., Shell Canada Ltd. and ExxonMobil Canada Properties.

Crosstex Energy Inc.‘s partnership agreed to pay $10 million to acquire Chevron Corp.‘s 60-mile natural gas liquids (NGL) Intracoastal Pipeline, in a move to expand the company’s operations in southern Louisiana. The pipeline, which extends across southern Louisiana from Patterson to Henry Hub, connects to Crosstex’s Pelican processing plant and accesses other third-party processing plants in the region. NGLs produced at the Pelican plant flow through the Intracoastal Pipeline to Crosstex’s Cajun-Sibon NGL pipeline for delivery to the partnership’s Riverside fractionator. Crosstex’s Eunice, LA, processing plant also is connected to the Cajun-Sibon pipeline.

Charlotte, NC-based Piedmont Natural Gas (PNG) has completed the $57.5 million sale of half of its 30% ownership interest in SouthStar Energy Services to AGL Resources, effective Jan. 1. PNG retains a 15% ownership and earnings interest in SouthStar, which is no longer subject to any purchase option in favor of AGL. The deal increases to 85% AGL’s ownership interest in Atlanta-based SouthStar, which provides natural gas supply, transportation and related services to more than 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers under the trade names Georgia Natural Gas, Piedmont Energy, Florida Natural Gas and Ohio Natural Gas.

Dominion Resources said it plans to move forward with the $780 million sale of Pittsburgh-based Dominion Peoples to Peoples Hope Gas Co. LLC (PH Gas), a company that was created by a San Francisco-based infrastructure investment firm to carry out the sale. The sale of the western Pennsylvania natural gas utility to PH Gas, a subsidiary of SteelRiver Infrastructure Fund North America, was approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in mid-November. Dominion also had planned to sell Clarksburg, WV-based Dominion Hope to PH Gas as a package deal, but the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) denied the application for the sale in December, throwing into doubt the sale of both Dominion utilities (see NGI, Jan. 4). The sale of Dominion Peoples to PH Gas is expected to close in the first quarter, according to Dominion.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a certificate to Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP for a compression expansion of its East Texas-to-Mississippi facilities that would boost takeaway capacity from the Haynesville Shale area. Gulf South, a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipelines LLC, proposes to add three compressor units at two existing compressor stations to increase capacity of the East Texas-to-Mississippi facilities by approximately 556,000 Dth/d operating at 80% of its specified minimum yield strength. It plans to install a 14,355 hp compressor unit and a 17,558 hp compressor unit at its Hall Summit Compressor Station in northwestern Louisiana, and a 17,558 hp compressor unit at its Tallulah Compressor Station in northeast Louisiana. The additional compression would boost the capacity of the East Texas-to-Mississippi facilities from receipt points to be constructed between the Texas-Louisiana border and the Hall Summit Compressor Station near Keatchie in northwestern Louisiana to delivery points at the Perryville Hub in northwest Louisiana, which is just west of the Tallulah Compressor Station, according to the FERC order [CP09-420].The compression expansion is intended to increase access to the Haynesville Shale in northwestern Louisiana. Gulf South said it has entered into a precedent agreement with Petrohawk Energy Corp., Questar Exploration and Production Co. and EnCana Marketing (USA) Inc.

Calais LNG Project Co. LLC and Calais Pipeline Co. LLC filed an application at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on the St. Croix River in Calais, ME, and an associated pipeline. The proposed Calais LNG terminal would have three storage tanks and the capacity to deliver 1 Bcf/d of revaporized LNG to the 20-mile, 36-inch diameter Calais Pipeline, which would interconnect with Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline in Princeton, ME.

MoBay Storage Hub LLC is holding an open season through Feb. 2 for up to 8 Bcf of firm natural gas storage service. Located in southern Alabama, MoBay’s storage hub project will have access to multiple gas supplies originating from shale plays in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, as well as traditional Gulf Coast supplies and liquefied natural gas. MoBay will provide direct access to more than 4 Bcf/d of pipeline takeaway capacity serving the Florida, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets, the company said. Pipeline interconnects include Gulfstream Natural Gas, Gulf South Pipeline, Southeast Supply Header, Florida Gas Transmission (Zone 3) and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Zone 4A) (see NGI, Oct. 20, 2008). MoBay is the only storage facility with interconnections to the two main pipelines serving Florida, the company said. Construction of the project is expected to begin in March. Scheduled for commercial operation by June 2011, the facility will provide 50 Bcf of high-deliverability, multi-cycle (HDMC) capacity with 1 Bcf/d of withdrawal and injection capacity. For information, contact John Holcomb at jholcomb@falcongasstorage.com, or Meagan Schaffner at mschaffner@falcongasstorage.com.

Denver-based MarkWest Energy Partners LP has sold its 50% interest in Starfish Pipeline Co. LLC to Enbridge Offshore (Gas Transmission) LLC, an Enbridge Inc. company, effective Dec. 31, 2009. Starfish consists of the federally regulated Stingray gas pipeline, the unregulated Triton gathering system and the West Cameron dehydration facility, all located in the Gulf of Mexico or onshore in southwestern Louisiana. MarkWest bought its 50% stake in Starfish in 2005 from Enterprise Products Partners for $42.1 million (see NGI, Jan. 31, 2005).

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