Penn Virginia Resource Partners LP has agreed to buy general partner Penn Virginia GP Holdings LP in a stock transaction valued at about $954.5 million. Radnor, PA-based Penn Virginia Resource, a master limited partnership (MLP), manages natural gas gathering and processing businesses. Penn Virginia GP is controlled by onshore producer Penn Virginia Corp., which owns a 37.6% stake and all of the incentive distribution rights (IDR). The transaction would cancel Penn Virginia GP’s IDRs, which gave it an increasing share of the distributable cash flow that it generated.

The Permanent University Fund in Texas has completed a record-breaking lease sale covering parts of West Texas that will bring $206 million to the fund, which supports 18 institutions and six agencies in the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. Lease Sale No. 118, which was held in Midland, TX, topped the previous record, set in April, of roughly $54.4 million and brought in more revenue to the fund than all of the royalties in 2009 combined. El Paso Corp. was the winning bidder for leases covering 123,100 acres in the emerging Wolfcamp Shale in the Delaware Basin. El Paso, which already held leases on about 12,000 acres in the area, added acreage in Reagan, Crockett, Upton and Irion counties.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) said that she will block the nomination of Jack Lew to be director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) until the moratorium on deepwater oil and natural gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has been lifted or significantly modified. “Although Mr. Lew clearly possesses the expertise necessary to serve as one of the president’s most important economic advisers, I found that he lacked sufficient concern for the host of economic challenges confronting the Gulf Coast” following the massive oil spill off the southern coast of Louisiana, Landrieu wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Despite being struck down in federal court several times, the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling — which initially went into effect in late May — remains in force (see NGI, Sept. 6). Although not officially subject to the ban, drilling in the Gulf shallow waters (500 feet or below) has been brought to a standstill as well (see NGI, June 7).

In a decision that could move a proposal for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on the St. Croix River in Calais, ME, one step closer to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval, the U.S. Coast Guard found the Passamaquoddy Bay Waterway suitable for LNG marine traffic. Calais LNG Project CO. LLC and Calais Pipeline Co. LLC last year filed an application at FERC to build an LNG import terminal and an associated pipeline (see NGI, Jan. 11). 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. In July Calais LNG said a key financial backer, GS Power Holdings LLC, had pulled out of the approximately $1 billion project. The Maine Board of Environmental Protection recently agreed to a Calais LNG request to put its permit request on hold until Dec. 1 to give the company time to line up financing and gather information required by state regulators.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will host a three-day conference in Richmond Oct 12-14 that he said will cover every aspect of doing energy business in the state. Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the “Virginia: Energy Capital of the East Coast” conference. Other speakers scheduled to appear include Maureen Matsen, deputy secretary of natural resources and McDonnell’s senior adviser on energy; Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Douglas Domenech; and Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade James Cheng. The agenda includes an examination of how the energy sector is organized and operates in Virginia, the latest information on state and federal regulatory activity, cutting edge alternative energy projects, and energy research and development currently under way at the state’s universities. Scheduled panel discussions will cover the future of Virginia’s energy resources, a review of conservation and efficiency opportunities, and consideration of transportation issues, including the potential for electric vehicles and natural gas fleets. Conference sponsors include Dominion, Appalachian Power Co., AGL Resources, Consol Energy/CNX, Pepco Energy Services and Range Resources.

©Copyright 2010Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.