2011

Monster U.S. oil supply growth will force domestic producers to curtail onshore activity in the upcoming weeks but it won’t be soon enough for 2013 oil prices, which likely will be “uglier than expected,” Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts said Monday.

Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE) and Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) said ETE plans to drop down its interest in Southern Union Co. (SUG) into an ETP-controlled entity that will also include assets to be acquired in the merger of Sunoco Inc. (SUN) and ETP (see Daily GPI, May 11). Concurrent with the closing of the Sunoco merger, ETE will contribute its interest in SUG into an ETP-controlled entity in exchange for a 60% equity interest in the new entity, to be called ETP Holdco Corp. (Holdco). ETP will contribute its interest in Sunoco to Holdco and will retain a 40% equity interest in Holdco. Prior to the contribution of Sunoco to Holdco, Sunoco’s interests in Sunoco Logistics Partners LP will be transferred to ETP. “Through this transaction, we resolve the timing of ETE’s drop down of the SUG assets, without the need for external equity or debt financing, and will enhance distribution growth prospects at both ETE and ETP,” said ETE Chairman Kelcy Warren. ETE said it has reviewed its plans with all three credit rating agencies and believes that the new structure enhances the overall credit profile of ETE, ETP and SUG, and furthers ETP’s commitment to maintaining investment grade credit ratings.

Critics of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in California lament an alleged lack of information from the oil/natural gas industry, but producers are trying to counter what they consider to be gross misinformation on the drilling practice.

Rangeland Energy LLC’s COLT facility — North Dakota’s largest open-access crude oil marketing terminal, according to the company — has begun serving Bakken and Three Forks shale oil producers, the company said Monday.

The burgeoning development of shale gas plays in the United States “has changed the playing field for long-haul pipelines,” diminishing the need to move natural gas along traditional west-to-east routes and leaving large stretches of pipeline underutilized, according to a new report from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

Equitrans LP has informed FERC that it accidentally spilled hundreds of gallons of drilling mud and chemicals into a creek in southwest Pennsylvania in April while building a Marcellus Shale pipeline.

Kinder Morgan Pony Express Pipeline LLC and Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. are holding an open season through June 20 for crude oil transportation from a point near Baker, MT, to delivery points at Ponca City and Cushing, OK. Pony Express and Belle Fourche anticipate the ability to transport 100,000 or more b/d beginning in the fourth quarter of 2014. The companies have secured a long-term anchor shipper commitment for a minimum of 30,000 b/d. For more information, contact John Eagleton at (303) 914-4702, Mike Smith at (303) 763-3484, Bob Mishler at (303) 914-7762, Tad True at (307) 237-9301 or Bob Stamp at (307) 266-0345. In separate open seasons, Pony Express will offer single pipeline (local) oil transportation service from the Guernsey, WY, area and from the Denver-Julesburg Basin. Last year Kinder Morgan proposed converting a 635-mile Wyoming to Missouri section of its former Pony Express Pipeline from natural gas service back to its original function of carrying crude oil (see Daily GPI, Aug. 8, 2011).

Propane player NGL Energy Partners LP announced Monday that it has signed merger agreements with two High Sierra (HSE) entities, creating a diversified company through a cash and stock deal valued at $693 million, less assumed net debt.

A district court judge in Texas has reversed his earlier ruling that oil and natural gas equipment used “below ground” should be exempt from state sales taxes on extraction equipment.