Water services company Heckmann Corp. reiterated its emphasis on serving shale gas and oil developers in the United States in announcing the divestment of China Water & Drinks Inc. through the sale of nine of its 25 Chinese legal entities to Pacific Water & Drinks (HK) Group Ltd. (PWD). The deal closed Sept. 30, and Heckmann will no longer have business exposure in China except through its equity holding in PWD. “With our positive view of our current core water business and the growth opportunities in the United States, we are pleased to put the China experience behind us,” said CEO Richard J. Heckmann. “We now have almost 1,100 employees in the U.S., up from fewer than 30 a year ago. We believe that the water business as it relates to shale gas and shale oil production will continue to drive our growth. In addition, the customer reaction to our conversion to LNG [liquefied natural gas] powered vehicles [see Shale Daily, Aug. 23], which we are now putting in service, has been very positive.”

Laser Northeast Gathering Co. LLC has been fined $1,995 for failing to file a 4Q2010 expense report for lobbying activities in Pennsylvania in a timely manner. According to the final adjudication of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission, Laser didn’t file the report, which showed that $8,162 in lobbying expenses had been expended by the company during 4Q2010, until June 21, five months past the Pennsylvania Department of State‘s original deadline and one month after a secondary deadline. A warning notice sent to Laser was not received because the company was in the process of moving its offices to Pennsylvania and the letter was not forwarded to its new address in a timely matter, Laser told the commission. Laser is in the process of building the $50 million PA-NY Gathering Line Project, a 30-mile system that would traverse 21 miles of Susquehanna County, PA, and nine miles of Broome County, NY, where it would connect with the Millennium interstate pipeline (see Shale Daily, Sept. 14).