2012

Equitrans LP, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp., Wednesday said it has gotten the go-ahead from FERC to begin construction on a new pipeline in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that will provide additional takeaway capacity for Marcellus Shale gas producers.

An open season for Project Mariner West, a proposed pipeline to deliver ethane from MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC’s Houston, PA, processing and fractionation complex in the Marcellus Shale to Sarnia, ON, has received binding commitments that enable the project to proceed as designed with an initial capacity to transport approximately 50,000 b/d and the ability to expand to support higher volumes as needed, according to Sunoco Logistics Partners LP.

NuStar Energy LP and Valero Energy Corp. have struck an agreement for NuStar to modify existing sections of its South Texas pipeline system and build new sections to transport Eagle Ford and other crude oils. NuStar will reverse an eight-inch diameter refined products pipeline that currently runs from Corpus Christi to Three Rivers and will convert it to crude service. The pipeline will provide capacity to transport Eagle Ford crude and condensate to Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery; the line is expected to be in full service by the end of September. NuStar will also construct 55 miles of new 12-inch diameter pipeline that will connect to existing pipeline segments to move crude from Corpus Christi to Valero’s Three Rivers refinery. This system is expected to be in service by the second quarter of 2012. “With the growing production from the Eagle Ford region, NuStar is in the unique position to provide Valero and our other customers with quick transportation solutions given the fact that we have hundreds of miles of existing pipeline running from that region into Corpus Christi, where it can be refined or transported to other locations,” said NuStar CEO Curt Anastasio.

Making good on its comparisons to Saudi Arabia in terms of natural energy resources, the Marcellus Shale has been making its heft felt on the Northeast region’s pipelines, wreaking havoc with traditional basis on lines such as Tennessee Gas Pipeline.

The Alberta Energy Ministry said it has sold a record C$2.68 billion in drilling rights so far this year, eclipsing the previous record of C$2.39 billion set in 2010.

FERC has issued a favorable environmental assessment of National Fuel Gas Supply Corp.’s Northern Access Project and Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s 230C Project, both of which would provide for the bidirectional flow of 320,000 Dth/d of Marcellus Shale gas to the system of TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. at Niagara, NY.

New York’s registered voters favor the economic benefits of drilling in the Marcellus Shale more than they fear environmental problems, according to a poll released on Thursday by Quinnipiac University. All voters — Republicans, Democrats and Independents — also favor taxing gas producers.

Driven by record natural gas output from core holdings in the Pinedale Anticline of Wyoming and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, Ultra Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday reported quarterly profit numbers that beat Wall Street’s expectations. The Houston producer also disclosed that it established a third core area, almost 100,000 net acres in the liquids-prone Niobrara formation of the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin of Colorado.

Operators drilled more than 1,000 wells into the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale through the end of July, a milestone not reached until mid-September in 2010 and not at all in 2009.