El Paso Corp.‘s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (TGP) declared a force majeure following a rupture of a line near Batesville, MS, on Nov. 21. “About 8:30 [p.m.] one of the station operators at our Station 63 noticed a pressure change in the line…We immediately activated our emergency response plan, isolated the lines and began our regulatory notifications,” El Paso spokeswoman Gretchen Krueger told NGI. About 20 homes were evacuated; there were no injuries. The line was shut in, and an investigation was ongoing. The force majeure affects the line from MLV (Main Line Valve) 63-1 to MLV 64-1, Tennessee said in a customer notice.

The first shipment of gas-to-liquid (GTL) base oil from the massive Pearl GTL plant in Qatar has arrived at the Port of Houston, Shell Lubricants said. The plant in Ras Laffan Industrial City uses natural gas from the country’s North Field to manufacture high-quality base oils and other GTL products; gas began flowing through a subsea pipeline offshore Qatar earlier this year (see NGI, March 28). Pearl comprises two offshore platforms that are 60 kilometers off the Qatar coast that are connected by pipeline to the GTL plant. The Group III base oil transported to the United States is to be used to manufacture motor oil. Pearl, the largest GTL plant ever built, is a partnership between Royal Dutch Shell plc and Qatar Petroleum that was launched in 2006.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources has issued an air quality construction permit and awarded grant money to NRG Energy Inc. to begin a $26.5 million project to convert one of its power plants from coal to natural gas. NRG, which is converting the Dover Energy Center, said the center now contains a 190,000 pound per hour steam boiler that is powered by coal, along with two 45 MW simple cycle combustion turbines and an 18 MW electrical steam turbine generator. Under the conversion plan, NRG will retire the coal-fueled boiler and replace it with one powered by natural gas with low nitrogen oxide emissions. One of the two combustion turbines will be converted to a combined cycle operation with a heat recovery steam generator and additional emissions control equipment. The plant is expected to be completed by June 2013.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) of Sawgrass Storage LLC‘s proposal to convert a depleted natural gas reservoir to an underground storage facility just west of Perryville in Lincoln and Union parishes in northeast Louisiana [CP11-523]. The storage project would have a working capacity of about 30 Bcf and would be capable of delivering and receiving gas at the rate of about 300 MMcf/d. The Sawgrass Storage field would be developed by converting the depleted South Downsville Field in northern Louisiana, which produced 50 Bcf of gas between 1961 and 1984 and was abandoned in 1985 (see NGI, Aug. 15). It also proposes to build 13.9 miles of 30-inch diameter mainline pipeline extending northeast from the storage facility to an interconnection with the interstate system of Midcontinent Express Pipeline (MEP), about nine miles southeast of Farmerville, LA. The company has asked the Commission to issue a certificate by Dec. 31 so that it can begin construction in March 2012. This would allow Sawgrass to place the project in service in March 2013, the storage developer said. Sawgrass is a venture of Mill Creek Gas Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Samson Investment Co., a privately held energy exploration and production firm (see related story); and Cypress Creek Gas Storage LLC, a subsidiary of Nicor Inc. of Naperville, IL.

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) plans to conduct an additional environmental study on a controversial plan to drill 136 natural gas wells in a portion of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in the Wyoming Range. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead earlier this year expressed concerns about Plains Exploration and Production Co.‘s (PXP) master development plan for Eagle Prospect and Noble Basin, which call for drilling 136 wells from 17 pads in the forest (see NGI, May 9). PXP’s proposal is in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) phase at the USFS. The USFS indicated last January that no gas and oil drilling would be permitted on 70 square miles of the range (see NGI, Jan. 31). In that decision, which affected 44,720 net acres, Supervisor Jacqueline Buchanan wrote that the potential harm to Canada’s lynx, mule deer, air quality and recreational opportunities all concerned her. Buchanan said the USFS now needs to conduct an additional environmental study and seek public input on an alternate plan for development after receiving 60,000 comments from the public on the DEIS.

The State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER) has made a few minor recommendations for Colorado’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) regulations, but concluded that the program is well managed and contains some strengths the shale gas industry would find noteworthy. In its 33-page report, STRONGER lauded the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) for enacting Rules 205 and 341, which respectively require operators to inventory chemicals kept at well sites during operations, and to monitor and record bradenhead annulus pressure during fracking operations, with operators reporting readings greater than 200 psig to the state agency. COGCC also received high marks for its management staff and website, and for conducting its own in-house review of fracking regulations in 2008. But STONGER recommended that Colorado enact minimum and maximum surface casing depths, review notification requirements to field inspectors and have the COGCC and the state Division of Water Resources (DWR) work together to find water sources for fracking.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) has raised the outlook on Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) to “positive” from “stable” and lifted its rating on the company’s senior unsecured debt to “BB.” The BB rating was also applied to PXP’s upcoming $500 million notes offering. S&P said its improved assessment takes into consideration PXP’s geographical diversity and called the California plays in the San Joaquin Valley, Arroyo Grande, Los Angeles, Point Pedernales and Point Arguello basins “stable,” noting reserves of 416 million boe with a seven-year reserve life. It also noted the company’s interests in the Haynesville and Eagle Ford shale plays.

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