The Alaska Department of Natural Resources will hold its annual North Slope, Beaufort Sea and North Slope Foothills areawide oil and gas lease sales on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Bid opening will begin at 9 a.m. local time at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. The total lease area encompasses 14 million acres. Bidding methods, minimum bids and lease terms remain the same as northern Alaska areawide lease sales held from 2011 to 2013 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 7, 2013). The North Slope and Beaufort Sea sale areas continue to include terms and conditions to incentivize exploration of tracts adjacent to federal lands, which include the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “The results from the past three sales show that investors have continued interest in obtaining new state oil and gas leases for exploration in northern Alaska,” said Bill Barron, director of the Division of Oil and Gas. Bidders must be qualified by Nov. 14 and bids must be received no later than Nov. 17.

Dominion East Ohio had crews on the scene Thursday at a campground about 10 miles south of Canton, OH, to repair a natural gas leak on a 30-inch diameter, high-pressure distribution line owned and operated by the company. Campers reported the smell of gas late Wednesday, and local emergency management officials began evacuating about 150 people there the next morning as a precaution. Dominion East Ohio spokesman Neil Durbin said gas running through the line has been rerouted and the leak has been isolated for repairs. Residential customers are not expected to be impacted, but two unspecified industrial customers will be. Durbin said it is unclear exactly how much natural gas had leaked from the line, and the company does not yet have an idea of when the repairs will be completed.

Mammoth Energy Partners LP, an oilfield services provider, is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) to raise up to $100 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The partnership was formed in early 2014, but it “has not and will not conduct any material business” until the IPO is launched. No details on when the launch would occur were provided. Mammoth is affiliated with Oklahoma City-based Gulfport Energy Corp. and is sponsored by Wexford Capital LP. Mammoth would provide services in Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. It would begin with 14 drilling rigs, including 11 horizontals. Wexford and Gulfport plan to contribute the assets of seven affiliated companies as subsidiaries: Redback Energy Services LLC, Redback Coil Tubing LLC, Muskie Proppant LLC, Panther Drilling Systems LLC, Bison Drilling & Field Services LLC, Bison Trucking LLC and Great White Sand Tiger Lodging Ltd. Together, the seven companies posted a net loss of almost $14 million on revenue of close to $133 million in 2013, versus a loss of $2 million on revenue of $8 million in 2012.

Green Group Holdings unit GGH Wyoming LLC has opened its Grasslands Environmental facility near Bill, WY, to serve the waste disposal and water needs of the state’s oil and gas producers. The facility includes a pull-through commercial oilfield wastewater disposal facility, an industrial landfill, a non-potable water supply well, and two Class I injection wells. Grasslands Environmental covers 482 acres and will contain about 10 million cubic yards of permitted airspace for the disposal of solid waste generated by the oil and gas industry. The facility will offer disposal of produced and flowback water, contaminated soil, and industrial wastes. The design of the facility ensures that trucks are always moving forward to minimize backing within the facility. Another safety feature of the facility is active water transfer, meaning control over water is maintained at all times, ensuring there is no risk of losing containment, according to Green Group. Grasslands Environmental began fresh water sales in August and will begin accepting wastewater in late October, the company said. The industrial landfill and the deep well injection sites are in the permitting process and expected to be operational next year. Green Group specializes in the development of large-scale infrastructure, environmental permitting and operations for projects such as industrial parks, water supply facilities, transfer stations, facilities for processing recyclable materials, and solid waste landfills.

Chicago-based Trillium CNG and Ohio-based Heritage Cooperative on Thursday teamed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in Kenton, OH. The station is part of Heritage’s $7 million Kenton Agricultural Campus expansion. Heritage, metal processor Precision Strip Inc. and the city of Kenton were part of the partnership in establishing the 24/7 Class-8 CNG fueling station. Trillium’s proprietary fast-fill hydraulic intensifier is used to fuel three dedicated CNG dispensers at the station. Precision Strip officials have committed to converting all of their fleet vehicles to CNG by the end of 2016.

Sempra Energy plans to break ground for its Cameron Liquefaction Project on Oct. 23 at the site of its existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Hackberry, LA. The project has all federal approvals and is expected to cost $9-10 billion using many of Cameron LNG’s existing facilities. It will be composed of three liquefaction trains capable of exporting up to 12 million tons of LNG annually, or about 1.7 Bcf/d of gas (see Daily GPI, June 19). Full commercial operation is expected in 2019.