Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) closed the purchase of 1,000 miles of gathering pipeline, the 75-mile Raptor intrastate pipeline system, as well as processing assets in southeast New Mexico from ConocoPhillips for $74 million. The assets include the Hobbs, Antelope Ridge and Zia processing plants with total capacity of 112 MMcf/d. “These assets acquired from ConocoPhillips allow DEFS to capture synergies from our existing asset base in southeast New Mexico,” said DEFS Chairman Bill Easter. “They will further enhance our ability to gather and process all types of gas, improve system flexibility and increase service offerings for our customers.”

Dominion Exploration & Production has found natural gas at the San Jacinto prospect in Desoto Canyon block 618, about 100 miles from Louisiana in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The company owns 53% of the prospect and is the operator. Spinnaker Exploration owns a 27% interest and Kerr-McGee has 20%. The prospect was drilled to 15,829 feet and encountered 100 net feet of gas pay in multiple reservoir sands. The well is being cased to total depth and temporarily abandoned for future use as a producible well. The discovery is Dominion’s second in the eastern Gulf of Mexico area, only six miles from the recently announced Spiderman/Amazon discovery in which Dominion E&P has a 37% working interest. Development alternatives for the Spiderman/Amazon discovery are under evaluation and will now include San Jacinto. Anadarko Petroleum is the operator of Spiderman/Amazon.

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