2009

Williams is moving into the Marcellus Shale play in a midstream joint venture (JV) with Atlas Pipeline Partners LP. Under the JV, Williams plans to help Atlas trim its debt in exchange for a 51% piece of the pipeline’s existing Appalachian Basin gathering system, which includes 1,800 miles of intrastate gathering lines serving 6,900 wells.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has adopted final rules that would heighten its oversight of certain lightly regulated contracts in exempt commercial markets (ECM) that perform significant price discovery for commodities in interstate commerce. The agency also issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) that seeks comments on whether a proposed limited risk management exemption should be extended to physical commodities other than agricultural, such as energy and metals.

Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) completed its Southern Shale and Cleburne-to-Tolar pipelines, providing 1.1 Bcf/d of capacity from the Barnett Shale of North Texas and boosting its capacity out of the shale to 4.6 Bcf/d. The 36-inch diameter Southern Shale pipeline originates in southern Tarrant County, TX, running 31 miles to ETP’s Maypearl compressor station near Maypearl, TX, where gas is delivered to ETP’s pipeline infrastructure. The 36-inch diameter Cleburne-to-Tolar pipeline originates in the western region of the Barnett Shale and connects to ETP’s Cleburne compressor station, which interconnects to ETP’s 42-inch diameter Cleburne-to-Carthage and 36-inch diameter North Texas pipelines. In the last year ETP has added more than 400 miles of 36-inch and 42-inch diameter pipeline and 4 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity, the company said. In September ETP completed two gas projects that added 875 MMcf/d of capacity to its transmission systems — the 42-inch diameter Carthage Loop pipeline in Texas and the 36-inch diameter San Juan Loop pipeline in New Mexico (see NGI, Sept. 15, 2008). In August ETP completed the 135-mile, 36-inch diameter Paris Loop pipeline and the 25-mile, 36-inch diameter Maypearl-to-Malone pipeline (see NGI, Aug. 11, 2008).

A Senate subcommittee is scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on two proposed bills that would require the administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to develop a plan to collect information on the ownership of all commercially held oil and natural gas inventories in the country, and would give FERC cease-and-desist authority in natural gas and electricity markets.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has adopted final rules that would heighten its oversight of certain lightly regulated contracts in exempt commercial markets (ECM) that perform significant price discovery for commodities in interstate commerce.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a Senate panel last Tuesday that he expects the department to have a revised five-year plan for oil and natural gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) ready by September 2010 or possibly earlier.

DCP Midstream LLC and its master limited partnership DCP Midstream Partners LP have restored operations at their gas processing complex and residue gas delivery system, known as the Carthage Hub, in East Texas, following a Feb. 11 explosion and fire resulting from a third-party pipeline rupture.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Friday said the department is taking a broad look at royalty rates for oil and natural gas produced on public lands, saying he “[does] not believe that we should be subsidizing the oil and gas industry.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Friday said the department is taking a broad look at royalty rates for oil and natural gas produced on public lands, saying he “[does] not believe that we should be subsidizing the oil and gas industry.”