Additional

Colorado Interstate Gas Co. (CIG) has filed an application at FERC seeking authorization to build an expansion of its existing High Plains System to provide additional takeaway capacity from the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin to the Cheyenne Hub in Weld County, CO.

Williams Partners LP said shipper interest supports a portion of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline’s (Transco) Atlantic Access project: expansion of the Leidy Line in northern Pennsylvania by up to 800,000 Dth/d by late 2015. However, the remainder of the previously announced Atlantic Access project will have to wait.

Citing continued downward pressure on natural gas prices, Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. on Wednesday reported a 40% increase in production but decreased earnings in the second quarter from a year ago. Both natural gas and liquids production continued to soar, up 37% and 96%, respectively, CEO Dan Dinges said during a conference call with financial analysts.

Braskem America on Wednesday agreed to take over some of the petrochemical operations at the old Sunoco Marcus Hook Industrial Complex south of Philadelphia with a $56 million infusion and another $15 million in state support that preserves more than 100 jobs and creates at least 28 more.

Williams Partners LP (WPZ) agreed late Tuesday to expand its business venture in the Utica Shale with Caiman Energy II by funding almost half of a midstream infrastructure development in Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania.

Hearings continue Wednesday in New Mexico on proposed changes to make the state’s “pit rule” for oil/natural gas drilling more cost effective. Additional hearings are expected to last through Aug. 17 and the Oil Conservation Commission (OCC) has set closing arguments and final deliberation for September, according to staff in the New Mexico Environment Department. An eighth day of hearings was concluded last Thursday with direct testimony from two Oil Conservation Division supervisors who supported modifications in the rule for handling gas and oil drilling production waste (see Daily GPI, May 22) that will result in “clear and unambiguous” requirements. Industry representatives earlier in the hearings said drilling costs are rising to comply with the state rule, while local ranchers and environmental group representatives expressed their concerns about adverse impacts on the environment.

Regulators with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) plan to file a legislative rule governing horizontal natural gas drilling that they hope may be adopted by state lawmakers next year.

An Obama administration official said the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other nations “makes sense” and strongly hinted that additional export permits would eventually be issued by the Department of Energy (DOE).

Following a long discussion by California regulators on Thursday it became clear that there’s no agreement about whether the state needs additional underground natural gas storage or whether it is too risky to site storage in a depleted gas field in a populated area, given the lessons emerging from the San Bruno, CA, pipeline explosion two years ago.