Western Gas Partners LP. agreed to acquire the Red Desert Complex and related assets, primarily located in the greater Green River Basin of southwestern Wyoming from parent Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for $483 million. Included in the purchase is Anadarko’s 100% ownership interest in Mountain Gas Resources LLC (MGR), which owns the Red Desert Complex, a 22% interest in Rendezvous Gas Services LLC and related facilities. Red Desert represents most of MGR’s cash flow (90%) and includes the Patrick Draw processing plant with a capacity of 125 MMcf/d, the Red Desert processing plant with a capacity of 48 MMcf/d, 1,295 miles of gathering lines and related facilities. Rendezvous owns a 338-mile mainline gathering system serving the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline fields in southwestern Wyoming, which delivers gas to WES’s Granger Complex and other locations. Red Desert and Rendezvous together are expected to generate more than 98% of MGR’s operating cash flows. The acquisition is scheduled to close in January.

Houston-based Cameron International Corp., which manufactured the blowout preventer used for the doomed deepwater Macondo oil well, has agreed to pay operator BP plc $250 million to settle claims relating to the disaster. Under the agreement Cameron admitted no guilt or liability. It also is no longer responsible for additional cleanup costs incurred by BP related to the spill. The Cameron payment is to be part of BP’s $20 billion cleanup fund that was set up following the accident in April 2010. However, the agreement does not cover civil, criminal or administrative fines and other penalties that may follow court proceedings, which are to begin in February. BP already settled claims with well partners Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and a unit of Japan’s Mitsui Ltd. (see NGI, Oct. 24; May 23). Still to be resolved are claims against Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Industrial Shippers’ request for Northern Natural Gas to revise its tariff to allow for partial crediting of reservation charges during force majeure or unplanned outages. Industrial Shippers sought rehearing of a FERC June 16 order that directed Northern Natural to pay affected shippers full reservation charges when scheduled gas is not delivered due to non-force majeure or planned maintenance events. However, the group took issue with the order’s failure to address the crediting of reservation charges during outages caused by force majeure or unplanned events. “The Commission reaffirms its finding [in the June 16 order] that Northern’s reservation charge crediting provision in non-force majeure events is not consistent with Commission policy and must be changed,” thus making affected shippers eligible to receive full reservation charge credits in the event of a nonforce majeure outage, the order said [RP11-2061]. With respect to force majeure or unplanned outages, the FERC order directed Northern natural to revise its tariff to provide “some level of partial reservation charge credits” to affected shippers.

Crestwood Midstream Partners LP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mountaineer Keystone LLC to build a 42-mile natural gas gathering system in northeast West Virginia, a project that would for the first time open the Marcellus Shale to the Houston-based midstream partnership. The 16-inch diameter Tygart Valley Pipeline, which will serve Mountaineer’s Marcellus development program, would interconnect with Columbia Gas Transmission‘s WB Pipeline in Randolph County, WV, and provide Mountaineer and other producers access to markets in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore areas. It would have total capacity of approximately 200 MMcf/d, which could be expanded to approximately 300 MMcf/d with compression. Mountaineer, a First Reserve Corp. portfolio company, expects to reserve firm capacity of 115 MMcf/d under a long-term, fixed-fee gathering agreement. Mountaineer expects to begin a horizontal drilling program in Barbour, Preston and Taylor counties in West Virginia in mid-2012. The project is expected to cost about $70 million and is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2012.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued 281 permits and operators reported drilling 151 wells into the play in November. Through the end of the month the DEP issued 3,163 permits and operators reported drilling 1,751 wells in 2011. By comparison, the DEP issued 2,916 permits and operators reported drilling 1,368 wells by the same point last year. In a continuing trend, permitting is down while drilling is up in the three prolific counties along the New York border. Between this November and last, permitting fell 6.7% to 1,367 while well counts increased 13.9% to 795 in Bradford, Tioga and Susquehanna counties. But in neighboring Lycoming, Wyoming, Potter and Sullivan counties, permitting is up 34% to 553 and drilling is up 107% to 347 wells between this November and last. In southwestern Pennsylvania, permitting is up 15.6% to 622 and drilling is up 27% to 343 wells in Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene counties. Just to the north in Butler, Armstrong and Indiana counties, permitting is up 56% to 200 and drilling is up 17% to 89 wells. Across the state line, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources issued 32 Utica Shale permits in November, up from 25 permits in October.

Nuevo Midstream LLC is beefing up its gas processing and treating capacity in the Delaware Basin near Orla, TX, targeting service to producers that are pursuing the liquids-rich Bone Spring, Wolfcamp and Avalon Shale plays. Nuevo plans to “significantly increase” capacity at its Ramsey plant. It has bought a cryogenic processing plant with capacity of 100 MMcf/d and a second amine treating plant with a capacity of 475 gallons per minute (gpm). Both are to be installed at the Ramsey site and are expected to be operational in the second quarter. The company’s Ramsey Gathering System is also slated for extension with additional large-diameter gathering lines and an interconnect to the El Paso pipeline. The system crosses Eddy County in southeast New Mexico and Culberson, Loving and Reeves counties in West Texas and currently serves 38 Bone Spring, Wolfcamp and Avalon Shale producers.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. and Stone Energy Corp. plan to jointly develop Marcellus Shale acreage in West Virginia. The contract area covers an existing mineral leasehold jointly held by the companies in Wetzel County. Financial terms were not disclosed. Magnum Hunter subsidiary Triad Hunter LLC and Stone jointly would develop 1,925 acres and plan to drill 19 horizontal wells over the next two years. Earlier this year Stone and Triad drilled and completed two horizontal wells on a portion of the existing leasehold. Stone also agreed to commit its share of production from the contract area to Eureka Hunter Pipeline System, which is operated by Magnum Hunter subsidiary Eureka Hunter Pipeline LLC. Stone would act as the operator within the contract area and each company would own a half-stake in the project.

Heckmann Corp. has begun transporting fresh water to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) customers in the Haynesville Shale through a partially completed pipeline. When the system is completed, it will be the largest fresh water pipeline in the Haynesville area, the company said. The pipeline is to be 40 miles long when fully operational next year with a capacity of 60,000 b/d. Initial orders in December are expected to be about 16,000 b/d. The pipeline is accessing water from the Red River and will ultimately also be able to deliver water from the Sabine River.

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