SandRidge Energy Inc. has agreed to sell its East Texas natural gas properties in Gregg, Harrison, Rusk and Panola counties to NFR Energy LLC for $231 million. The properties include about 25,000 net acres with average 2011 production of approximately 25 MMcfe/d. Proceeds from the deal, which is expected to close in November, will be used to fund a portion of SandRidge’s oil-focused drilling program, the Oklahoma City, OK-based company said. As a result of the sale, SandRidge expects production to be 23.9 MMBoe in 2011 and 27.7 MMBoe in 2012. SandRidge recently increased its 2011 production guidance to 24.1 MMboe from the previously announced 23.3 MMboe.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Kern River Gas Transmission’s request to place into service a number of facilities associated with its Apex Expansion Project (see Daily GPI, Sept. 20, 2010). The facilities include the Milford Compressor Station in Beaver County, UT; new and restaged compressor units at the Elberta Compressor Station in Utah County, UT; new and restaged compressor units at the Coyote Creek Compressor Station in Uinta County, WY; an upgraded boost compressor at the Fillmore Compressor Station in Millard County, UT; and the Wasatch Loop in Morgan, Davis and Salt Lake City counties, UT. Kern River has targeted the Apex Expansion for completion this fall, possibly as early as October.

Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy Inc. (PSE) has applied to the Department of Energy for a long-term authorization to import and export up to 10,000 MMBtu/d natural gas to and from Canada over a five-year period — from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31, 2016 [FE Docket No. 11-116-NG]. PSE has purchased and imported interruptible short-term supplies of Canadian gas at the U.S.-Canadian border since 1991, and it has exported short-term supplies of gas since 2002, according to the company’s application. PSE said it wants to continue exporting gas to Canada because of enhanced storage and market opportunities to meet its business needs.

A program in the city of Los Angeles to drive diesel vehicles out of port operations, along with neighboring Long Beach, during the last six years hit a snag in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision that struck down one part of the city port’s Clean Truck Program, which has lowered emissions at the harbor by nearly 90% since 2005. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he was deeply disappointed that the court found the employee-driver provision was exempt from the requirements that all vehicles and equipment in the harbor use clean fuel alternatives to diesel. Villaraigosa said the Clean Truck Program “has played a major role in helping to reduce vehicle emissions and has become a model for other ports around the country.” He also said despite the disappointment, other components of the program were upheld by the court’s decision, so the LA port will continue on a path the mayor called headed toward “green growth” by ensuring that trucking companies that contract with the Port of Los Angeles are required to maintain a clean trucking fleet,” which in most cases has been natural gas (compressed or liquefied).

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